Ground State Energy of Hydrogen-Like Ions in Quantum Plasmas

Abstract

Using the asymptotic iteration method (AIM) we investigate the variation in the 1s energy levels of hydrogen and helium-like static ions in fully degenerate electron gas. The semiclassical Thomas-Fermi (TF), Shukla-Eliasson (SE) and corrected Shukla-Eliasson (cSE) models are compared. It is remarked that these models merge into the vacuum level for hydrogen and helium-like ions in the dilute classical electron gas regime. While in the TF model hydrogen ground state level lifts monotonically towards the continuum limit with increase in the electron concentration, in the SE and cSE models universal bound stabilization valley through the energy minimization occurs at a particular electron concentration range for the hydrogen-like ion which for cSE model closely matches the electron concentrations in typical metals. The later stabilizing mechanism appears to be due to the interaction between plasmon excitations and the Fermi lengthscales in metallic density regime. In the case of helium-like ions, however, no such stability mechanism is found. The application of cSE model with electron exchange and correlation effects reveals that cSE model qualitatively accounts for the number-density and lattice parameters of elemental metals within the framework of free electron assumption. According to the cSE model of static charge screening a simple metal-insulator transition criterion is defined. Current investigation may further elucidate the underlying physical mechanisms in the formation and dielectric properties of metallic compounds.