Atomic H over plane: effective potential and level reconstruction

Abstract

The behavior of atomic H in a semi-bounded space $z \geq 0$ with the condition of "not going through" the boundary (the surface $z=0$) for the electronic wavefunction (WF) is considered. It is shown that in a wide range of "not going through" condition parameters the effective atomic potential, treated as a function of the distance $h$ from H to the boundary plane, reveals a well pronounced minimum at certain finite but non-zero $h$, which describes the mode of "soaring" of the atom above the plane. In particular cases of Dirichlet and Neumann conditions the analysis of the soaring effect is based on the exact analytical solutions of the problem in terms of generalized spheroidal Coulomb functions. For $h$ varying between the regions $h \gg a_B$ and $h \ll a_B$ both the deformation of the electronic WF and the atomic state are studied in detail. In particular, for the Dirichlet condition the lowest $1s$ atomic state transforms into $2p$-level with quantum numbers $210$, the first excited ones $2s$ --- into $3p$ with numbers $310$, $2p$ with $m=0$ --- into $4f$ with numbers $430$, etc. At the same time, for Neumann condition the whole picture of the levels transmutation changes drastically. For a more general case of Robin (third type) condition the variational estimates, based on special type trial functions, as well as the direct numerical tools, realized by pertinent modification of the finite element method, are used. By means of the latter it is also shown that in the case of a sufficiently large positive affinity of the atom to the boundary plane a significant reconstruction of the lowest levels takes place, including the change of both the asymptotics and the general dependence on $h$.