Dynamics of a Rydberg hydrogen atom near a topologically insulating surface

¹ Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, CSIC - Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
² Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México - 04510 México D. F., México
³ Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, DACB - 86690 Cunduacán, Tabasco, México

Received: 12 August 2017
Accepted: 8 November 2017

Abstract

We investigate the classical dynamics of a Rydberg hydrogen atom near the surface of a planar topological insulator. The system is described by a Hamiltonian consisting of the free-hydrogen part and the hydrogen-surface potential. The latter includes the interactions between the electron and both image electric charges and image magnetic monopoles. Owing to the axial symmetry, the z component of the angular momentum l_z is conserved. Here we consider the case. The structure of the phase space is explored extensively by means of numerical techniques and Poincaré surfaces of section for the recently discovered topological insulator TlBiSe₂. The phase space of the system is separated into regions of vibrational and rotational motion. We show that vibrational-rotational-vibrational–type transitions can be tuned with the topological magnetoelectric polarizability.