Rostock 2019 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 32: Collisions, scattering and correlation phenomena
A 32.2: Talk
Thursday, March 14, 2019, 14:30–14:45, S HS 3 Physik
The virtual photon approximation for three-body interatomic Coulombic decay — •Robert Bennett1,2, Petra Votavová3, Přemysl Kolorenč3, Tsveta Miteva4, Nicolas Sisourat4, and Stefan Yoshi Buhmann1,2 — 1Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany — 2Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) — 3Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic — 4Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) is an ultrafast process by which energy can be exchanged between microscopic systems. Computational quantum chemistry studies of the process usually use a ‘virtual photon approximation’ to determine the correct long-range asymptote of the ICD rate, which is then used as a consistency check. Using the macroscopic quantum electrodynamics formalism recently presented in [1], we extend the virtual photon approach to the case of three-body ICD [2], inspired by the prediction of a novel superexchange process from ab initio quantum chemistry [3]. The system we study is that in which a passive mediating atom is placed near the donor and acceptor species — the mediator’s presence turns out to substantially enhance or suppress the rate. Our approach provides simple analytic formulae for the large-distance limits of three-body ICD, and allows for the inclusion of relativistic retardation. The latter turns out to have a strong effect, causing, for example, spatial oscillations in the ICD rate.
[1] J. L. Hemmerich et al., Nat. Commun. 9, 2934 (2018). [2] R. Bennett et al., arXiv quant-ph 1811.09489, [3] T. Miteva et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 083403 (2017).