Alignment and photoionization of helium atom

Author(s)

Cláudia Pio Ferreira

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC/BT)
• Defense date: 1997-08-29

Examining board members

Jose Eduardo Martinho Hornos; Luiz Eugenio Machado; Luis Gustavo Marcassa

• Advisor: Jose Eduardo Martinho Hornos

Abstract

In this work we describe the concepts of aligrnment and orientation based on the formalism of Fano and Macek formalism and we study the photoionization of the Helium atom ground state. We have used an approximate wave function obtained from the diagonalization of the Gailitis- Damburg operator. The anisotropy of the system formed after the colision was measured through the calculation of the ion electronic density and also by the use of the alignment tensor and orientation vector. The behaviour of these parameters for the transitions np ->1s and n ->n-1 as a function of n (the principal quantum number of the ion) was plotted for both the relevant symmetries, 1 P° and 3 P°. We have observed that the maximum alignment of the system, with respect to the dominant symmetry axis defined as the z axis, occurs in the Wannier threshold (n->?). This leads to the alignment of the ionic electron along the z axis for the 3 P°symmetry, and orthogonal to the z axis for the 1P° symmetry. This phenomenom is caused by the electron-electron Ínteraction. (AU)