• DOI:10.1103/PHYSREVA.102.032204
• Corpus ID: 219531732

Two-photon atomic level widths at finite temperatures

@article{Zalialiutdinov2020TwophotonAL,
  title={Two-photon atomic level widths at finite temperatures},
  author={T. Zalialiutdinov and A Anikin and D. Solovyev},
  journal={Physical Review A},
  year={2020},
  volume={102},
  pages={032204}
}

• T. Zalialiutdinov, A. Anikin, D. Solovyev
• Published 6 June 2020
• Physics
• Physical Review A

The thermal two-photon level broadening of the excited energy levels in the hydrogen and H-like helium is evaluated via the imaginary part of thermal two-loop self-energy correction for bound electron. All the derivations are presented in the framework of rigorous quantum electrodynamic theory at finite temperatures and are applicable for the H-like ions. On this basis, we found a contribution to the level broadening induced by the blackbody radiation which is fundamentally different from the usual line broadening caused by the stimulated two-photon decay and the Raman scattering of thermal photons. Numerical calculations of the two-loop thermal correction to the two-photon width for the $2s$ state in hydrogen and singly ionized helium atoms show that the effect could significantly exceed the higher-order relativistic and radiative QED corrections commonly included in the calculations. In addition, the thermal two-loop self-energy correction significantly exceeds the "ordinary" stimulated one-photon depopulation rate at the relevant laboratory temperatures. In this work, detailed analysis and the corresponding comparison of the effect with the existing laboratory measurements in H-like ions are carried out.