Abstract

The helium atom in a highly excited state, which strongly resembles the hydrogen atom, is studied in the presence of a strong magnetic field 8. The hydrogen atom in a strong magnetic field is a textbook example of a nonseparable Schrodinger equation, owing to the spherical symmetry of the Coulomb field and the cylindrical symmetry of the diamagnetic field contribution. Study of the spectrum as a function of magnetic field strength B around the classical ionization limit shows how the dynamics of this system evolve from regular at low fields to classically chaotic in the strong-field regime.

© 1991 Optical Society of America