English

Polarization correlations in the two--photon decay of hydrogen--like ions

Atomic Physics 2011-08-23 v1

Abstract

Polarization properties of the photons emitted in the two-photon decay of hydrogen-like ions are studied within the framework of the density matrix and second-order perturbation theory. In particular, we derive the polarization correlation function that gives the probability of the (two-photon) coincidence measurement performed by polarization-sensitive detectors. Detailed calculations of this function are performed for the 2s1/21s1/22s_{1/2} \to 1s_{1/2} transition in neutral hydrogen as well as Xe53+^{53+} and U91+^{91+} ions. The obtained results allow us to understand the influence of relativistic and non-dipole effects on the polarization correlations in the bound-bound two-photon transitions in heavy ions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1006.4799,
  title  = {Polarization correlations in the two--photon decay of hydrogen--like ions},
  author = {Filippo Fratini and Andrey Surzhykov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.4799},
  year   = {2011}
}