Physical Review A
Nonstationary multistate Coulomb and multistate exponential models for nonadiabatic transitions
Valentin N. Ostrovsky
Abstract
The nonstationary Schr\"odinger equation is considered in a finite basis of states. The model Hamiltonian matrix corresponds to a single diabatic potential curve with a Coulombic $\ensuremath{\sim}1/t$ time dependence. An arbitrary number of other diabatic potential curves are flat, i.e., time independent and have arbitrary energies. Related states are coupled by constant interactions with the Coulomb state. The resulting nonstationary Schr\"odinger equation is solved by the method of contour integral. Probabilities of transitions to any other state are obtained as $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{t}\ensuremath{\infty}$ in a simple analytical form for the case when the Coulomb state is populated initially (at instant of time $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{t}+0).$ The formulas apply both to the cases when a horizontal diabatic potential curve is crossed by the Coulomb one and to a noncrossing situation. In the limit of weak coupling, the transition probabilities are interpreted in terms of a sequence of pairwise Landau-Zener-type transitions. Mapping of the Coulomb model onto an exactly solvable exponential multistate model is established. For the special two-state case, the well-known Nikitin model is recovered.