Abstract
We present the first observations of cylindrical symmetry breaking in highly excited diamagnetic hydrogen with a small crossed electric field, and we give a semiclassical interpretation of this effect. As the small perpendicular electric field is added, the recurrence strengths of closed orbits decrease smoothly to a minimum, and revive again. This phenomenon, caused by interference among the electron waves that return to the nucleus, can be computed from the azimuthal dependence of the classical closed orbits.
- Received 14 January 1997
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.4705
©1997 American Physical Society