INFLUENCE OF WEAK ELECTRIC-FIELDS ON RYDBERG ELECTRON WAVEPACKET DYNAMICS IN THE RADIAL COORDINATE

The spin-orbit autoionisation dynamics of Rydberg electron wavepackets in Ar are investigated in weak electric fields, where epsilon less th an or equal to -13.8 and epsilon is the scaled energy in atomic units. The electric field modifies both the interference pattern and revival time of the recurrence spectrum. By writing the energies of the eigen states included in the superposition as a Taylor's expansion, a quanti tative description of the changes in classical orbit period and reviva l time are obtained. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.