Photoionization dynamics of Rydberg atom in a space-dependent magnetic field

The photoionization dynamics of Rydberg hydrogen atom in a space-dependent magnetic field has been studied for the first time. Because of the non-uniform magnetic field, this system is non-integrable, and its dynamics becomes more complex than that in a uniform magnetic field. The exact analytic electron wave function can not be obtained by solving the Schrödinger equation quantum mechanically, instead, it can be constructed within the framework of the semiclassical EBKM scheme, which gives the correspondence between the quantum wave function and a family of classical electron trajectories. The observed oscillatory structures in the electron probability density distributions on the detector plane can be understood by considering the accumulated phase among different classical trajectories by which the electron moves from the atom to the detector. The calculation results suggest that the patterns of the photoionization microscopy can be modulated by changing the scaled energy, the position of the detector plane and the initial state wave function. Once the photoionization microscopy image on the detector has been measured in the experiment, it can be used to recover the angular distribution of the electron wave function. Our work provides a convincing semiclassical interpretation of the photoionization microscopy image and the underlying classical dynamics, and may guide future experimental study on the photoionization microscopy of the Rydberg atom in the non-uniform magnetic fields. Graphic Abstract