DC Tunneling Ionization
Tunneling ionization from the ground state of a Hydrogen atom in an electrostatic (DC) field was solved schematically by Landau. This provides a simplified physical system that given it proper exponential dependence of the ionization rate on the applied external field. When, the ionization rate for this system is given by:
Landau expressed this in units where . In SI units the previous parameters can be expressed as:
- ,
- .
The ionization rate is the total probability current through the outer classical turning point. This is found using the WKB approximation to match the ground state hydrogen wavefunction though the suppressed coulomb potential barrier.
Read more about this topic: Tunnel Ionization
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