Abstract
The externally driven bound electron is a quantized nonlinear system, with the nonlinearity arising from the Coulomb binding force. Laboratory experiments that probe the near classical behavior of this system involve highly excited hydrogen atoms exposed to microwave fields of ionizing strength. Ionization of atoms of initial principal quantum number n0 between 30 and 90 and microwave frequencies between 6 and 18 GHz requires the absorption of the energy of some number kI of microwave photons that is the order of 100. At ionizing field strengths there is rapid stimulated photon absorption and emission underlying the time evolution of the mean value of the atom’s quantum number. The total number K of photon interactions during the microwave exposure time can be 10,000. As the quantities n0, kI, and K are all much larger than unity, it is reasonable to ask as to what extent the behavior of the system is classical.
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Bayfield, J.E. (1988). Experiment and Theory of the Classically Chaotic Motion of the Driven Bound Electron. In: Gallavotti, G., Zweifel, P.F. (eds) Nonlinear Evolution and Chaotic Phenomena. NATO ASI Series, vol 176. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1017-4_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1017-4_22
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