Physics Letters A 373 (2009) 22512254

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Physics Letters A
www.elsevier.com/locate/pla
Effects of an electric eld on the conned hydrogen atom
in a parabolic potential well
Wenfang Xie
1
School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 19 January 2009
Received in revised form 20 March 2009
Accepted 24 April 2009
Available online 6 May 2009
Communicated by R. Wu
PACS:
31.10.+z
73.20.Hb
Keywords:
Conned hydrogen atom
Binding energy
Using the perturbation method, the conned hydrogen atom by a parabolic potential well is investigated.
The binding energy of the conned hydrogen atom in a parabolic potential well is calculated as a function
of the conned potential radius and as a function of the intensity of an applied electric eld. It is shown
that the binding energy of the conned hydrogen atom is highly dependent on the conned potential
radius and the intensity of an applied electric eld.
2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Recently, studies of quantum objects conned by different
forms of external potentials have attracted the attention of both
physicists and quantum chemists. Conned systems are widely
used to model a variety of problems in physics and chemistry.
With the advancement of new technologies and experimental tech-
niques, a large body of articles have been published on studies on
spatially conned atoms and molecules [16]. The conned atomic
and molecular systems show substantially different properties as
compared to their free counterparts.
On the other hand, the progress in the modern experimental
techniques has allowed the fabrication of semiconductors nanos-
tructures, such as quantum wells and quantum dots, which has
permitted us to explore the limits of dimension and connement.
Hence, the study of conned atoms also provides insight into var-
ious properties of quantum nanostructures like quantum dots or
articial atoms [710]. A simple but interesting example of a con-
ned quantum system is hydrogen atoms. A cavity model of a
compressed hydrogen atom was rst proposed by Michels et al.
[11] to study the inuence of pressure on the atom, while Som-
merfeld and Welker [12] recognized the importance the model for
astrophysics. The study of spatially conned hydrogen atoms has
increased considerably during the last few years. A large body of
articles has been published on the conned hydrogen atoms in
the framework of non-relativistic quantum mechanics [5,1319].
E-mail address: xiewf@gzhu.edu.cn.
1
Tel.: +86 20 86231902; fax: +86 20 86230002.
In 2004, Laughlin investigated the hydrogen-like atom conned in
an impenetrable spherical box [18]. Very recently, Ndengu and
Motapon studied the electric response of the conned hydrogen
atoms using the Galerkin variational method [20].
External perturbations such as the application of an electric or
magnetic eld, can provide much valuable information about the
conned hydrogen atoms. Recent theoretical predicated both the
eld induced level shifts and the eld dependence of the carrier
lifetime [2123]. Therefore the effect of an electric eld on the
electronic properties of conned quantum systems is of great in-
terest for fundamental physics and device application. On the other
hand, in most studies of semiconductors nanostructures, a har-
monic oscillator potential were used to describe the connement
of electrons. The main aim of the present Letter is to elucidate the
external electric eld effects on the conned hydrogen atoms by a
parabolic potential. We will focus on studying the binding energies
of the ground state and the three low-excited states of a conned
hydrogen atom in a parabolic potential by using the perturbation
method.
With the framework of the non-relativistic quantum mechan-
ics, the Hamiltonian of a hydrogen atom conned by a parabolic
potential in the presence of an electric eld can be written as
H =
h
2
2m
e

2
+
1
2
m
e

2
0
r
2
+ |e|F z
e
2
4
0
r
, (1)
where r is the position vector of the electron, m
e
is the mass of an
electron,
0
measures the strength of the connement,
0
is the
0375-9601/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2009.04.058
2252 W. Xie / Physics Letters A 373 (2009) 22512254
vacuum permittivity and F is the external electric eld applied in
the z-direction.
The Hamiltonian can be rewritten as
H = H
0
+ H

, (2)
with
H
0
=
p
2
x
2m
e
+
1
2
m
e

2
0
x
2
+
p
2
y
2m
e
+
1
2
m
e

2
0
y
2
+
p
2
z
2m
e
+
1
2
m
e

2
0
(z + )
2

1
2
|e|F , (3)
and
H

=
e
2
4
0
r
, (4)
where = |e|F /(m
e

2
0
). In the regime of strong connement, H

is assumed the perturbation term. The perturbation methodology

has been used to treat the two-electron systems of quantum dots
in the regime of strong connement [24,25].
The eigenfunctions and eigenenergy of the low-lying states of a
hydrogen atom conned by a spherical parabolic potential well in
the presence of an electric eld without the Coulombic interaction
are given by

n
x
n
y
n
z
(x, y, z) =
n
x
(x)
n
y
(y)
n
z
(z + ), (5)
and
E
(0)
n
x
n
y
n
z
= (n
x
+n
y
+n
z
+3/2) h
0

1
2
|e|F ,
n
x
, n
y
, n
z
= 0, 1, . . . , (6)
where

n
(i) = N
n
exp
_

2
i
2
/2
_
H
n
(i), (7)
and
=
_
m
e

0
/ h, i = x, y, z. (8)
Here N
n
= [

2
n
n!
]
1/2
is the normalization constant, H(i) is the
Hermite polynomial, and
n
(i) is the normalized wave function of
one-dimensional oscillator.
Introducing the spherical coordinates
x =r sin cos , y =r sin sin, z =r cos , (9)
then we can obtain the wave functions of the ground state and the
three low-excited states in spherical coordinates, respectively,

0
0
(r, , ) =
000
(x, y, z)
=

3/2

3/4
exp
_

2
r
2
2

2
r cos

2

2
2
_
, (10)

0
1
(r, , ) =
001
(x, y, z)
=

2
5/2

3/4
(r cos + )
exp
_

2
r
2
2

2
r cos

2

2
2
_
, (11)

1
1
(r, , ) =
1

010
(x, y, z)
=

5/2

3/4
r sin
exp
_

2
r
2
2

2
r cos

2

2
2
i
_
, (12)

1
1
(r, , ) =
1

100
(x, y, z)
=

5/2

3/4
r sin
exp
_

2
r
2
2

2
r cos

2

2
2
+ i
_
, (13)
where
0
0
(r, , ) is the wave function of the ground state,

0
1
(r, , ),
1
1
(r, , ) and
1
1
(r, , ) are the wave functions of
the low-excited states and triply degenerate. Consider the applied
electric eld, the system symmetry will be destroyed. Thus, the
orbital quantum number is not good quantum number any more.
But the magnetic quantum number is a good one. The quantum
states can be denoted by the magnetic quantum number m. Hence,
the states of a hydrogen atom conned by a spherical parabolic
potential well in the presence of an electric eld can be labeled
by
m
N
, and their corresponding the energy levels can be labeled
by E
m
N
, shortly for (N, m). For simplicity, in this work, we restrict
our study to N =n
x
+n
y
+n
z
= 0, 1.
Compared with the binding energy of an electron in a harmonic
quantum dot with one hydrogenic impurity [2628], the binding
energy of a hydrogen atom conned by a spherical parabolic po-
tential well in the presence of an electric eld can be dened by
E
B
(N, m) = E
0
(n, m) E(N, m), (14)
where E(N, m) and E
0
(N, m) are, respectively, the lowest levels
of an electron in the spherical parabolic potential well with and
without the Coulomb potential. Hence the binding energies of a
hydrogen atom conned by a spherical parabolic potential well in
the presence of an electric eld are given by the correction term,
obtained from the perturbation method, as
H

i j
=
_

m
N
_
=
e
2
4
0
_

m
N

1
r

m
N
_
, (15)
where i and j are the suxes of the matrix element about H

.
Obviously, we can get the binding energy of the ground state as
follows:
E
B
(0, 0) =
e
2
8
0

1/4
Erf[], (16)
where Erf[x] is the error function. For N = 1, the states are triply
degenerative and the correction terms can be obtained from the
degenerative perturbation calculation such as: if i = j,
H

i j
= H

ji
= 0, (17)
if i = j, we can get the correction terms as follows:
H

11
=
_

0
1

0
1
_
=
e
2
(1 +
2

2
)(2e

2
+

Erf[])
4
0

3
, (18)
H

22
=
_

1
1

1
1
_
=
e
2
4
0

__
2
1

2
_
Erf[] +
2exp(
2

2
)

_
, (19)
H

33
=
_

1
1

1
1
_
= H

22
. (20)
By solving the secular equation, we can get
E
B
(1, 0) = H

11
, (21)
E
B
(1, 1) = E
B
(1, 1) = H

22
. (22)
Our results are presented in atomic units which corresponds
to a Bohr radius as the unit of length and to a Rydberg as the
unit of energy. In this work we dene the conned potential radius
W. Xie / Physics Letters A 373 (2009) 22512254 2253
Fig. 1. The binding energy of the ground state (N = 0, m = 0) of the conned hydro-
gen atom as a function of the connement radius for different values of the applied
electric eld.
Fig. 2. The binding energy of the ground state (N = 0, m = 0) of the conned hy-
drogen atom.
Table 1
The check of the accuracy of the ground state in accord with h
0
. F = 10
3
kV/cm
is assumed.
h
0
(Ry) 3 5 8 10 15
M (Ry) 0.13711 0.08270 0.05174 0.04140 0.02761
R =
_
h/m
e

0
as the characteristic length associated with the con-
ning potential. The check of the accuracy of the ground state is
shown Table 1, where M =

i=0,1
|H

0i
| = |
0
0
|H

|
i
1
| are given
in accord with h
0
. It is obvious that the convergence of energy
in the regime of strong connement is not bad, and |E
0
E
i
| M
can be achieved. This is sucient for the perturbation methodol-
ogy.
In Fig. 1, we present the binding energy of the ground state
(N = 0, m = 0) as a function of the conned potential radius for
different values of the applied electric eld. It is observed that the
binding energy of the ground state increases with decreasing R.
Also, the binding energy of the ground state increases with the
applied electric eld converging to the same value for small ra-
dius of the conned potential. It is important to observe that in
the regime of very strong connement, the binding energy of the
Fig. 3. The binding energies of the ground state (N = 0, m = 0) and the three low-
excited states (N = 1, m = 0, 1) of the conned hydrogen atom as a function of
the applied electric eld for the connement radius R = 0.8a
B
.
Fig. 4. The binding energies of the ground state (N = 0, m = 0) and the three low-
excited states (N = 1, m = 0, 1) of the conned hydrogen atom as a function of
the connement radius for the applied electric eld F = 25 10
5
V/cm.
ground state is practically not inuenced by the presence of the
applied electric eld.
To see intuitively the effect of the applied electric eld, we
show in Fig. 2 the binding energy of the ground state as a func-
tion of the intensity of the applied electric eld for different values
of the conned potential radius. It is observed that the binding
energies decrease monotonously with the intensity of the applied
electric eld increasing under a proper values of R, i.e., R = 0.5,
0.8 and 1.2a
B
. This is a consequence of the effect of the elec-
tric eld on the electronic probability density and of the parabolic
shape of the connement potential, which for both high eld and
large radius make coincide the values of the binding energy.
Fig. 3 shows the variation of the binding energies of the ground
state and the three low-excited states (N = 1, m = 0, 1) as a func-
tion of the intensity of the applied electric eld for R = 0.8a
B
.
We note that the triply degenerate of the N = 1 states split into
two energy level under the rst-rank energy correction in pres-
ence of the applied electric eld, so the degeneracy of energy
level of the conned hydrogen atom is partially removed that
is well-known stark shift effect. It is observed that the binding
energies of the (N = 0, m = 0) and the (N = 1, m = 1) states
2254 W. Xie / Physics Letters A 373 (2009) 22512254
decrease monotonously with the intensity of the applied electric
eld increasing. However, the binding energy of the (N = 1, m = 0)
state increases monotonously with the intensity of the applied
electric eld increasing. Hence the effect of the applied elec-
tric eld on the binding energy of the low-lying states of the
conned hydrogen atom depends strongly on the quantum num-
ber (N, m).
Furthermore, in order to see clearly the inuence of the quan-
tum size effect in the presence of an electric eld, we set F =
2510
5
V/cm and plot in Fig. 4 the binding energies of the ground
state and the three low-excited states as a function of the conned
potential radius. It is readily seen that the qualitative properties
of the binding energies of the low-lying states of the conned hy-
drogen atom are similar. As expected, the binding energies of the
low-lying states of the conned hydrogen atom increase with de-
creasing R. In fact, in the conned hydrogen atom the electron is
forced closed to the nuclear by the extra connement, which in-
creases the binding energy. However, the increase of the binding
energy of the ground state is obviously quick than those of the
low-excited states with the conning potential radius decreasing.
The physical origin is that the low-excited state has the rotational
energy but the ground state does not have. We know that the or-
bit radius of the electron in a spherical parabolic quantum well
is inversely proportional to the connement strength h
0
. When
h
0
increases, the connement radius will decrease and the rota-
tional inertia of the electron reduces so that the rotational energy
increases. Hence, the increase of the binding energy of the ground
state is obviously quick than those of the low-excited states with
decreasing R. On the other hand, we nd that in the very strong
connement regime the double degenerate of the N = 1 states in
presence of the applied electric eld change into the triply degen-
erate again.
In conclusion, we have investigated the effect of the elec-
tric eld of the hydrogen atom conned in a parabolic potential
well based on nondegenerate and degenerate perturbation meth-
ods. The binding energies of the ground and three low-excited
states as a function of the connement strength and the ap-
plied electric eld, respectively, are studied. It is shown that the
binding energies of the conned hydrogen atom are highly de-
pendent on the quantum connement and the external electric
eld.
Acknowledgements
This work is nancially supported by the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China under grant No. 10775035.
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