Influence of plasma environments on photoionization of atoms

Abstract

Within the framework of the method of the complex-coordinate rotation, a computational scheme has been developed to investigate influence of plasma environments on photoionization for atoms and ionized atoms. The Debye screening potential is used to describe effects of the plasma environments. Photoionization cross sections are reported for hydrogen and hydrogen-like helium in the ground states and compared with the available data. Investigation shows that near the ionization thresholds, photoionization is sensitive to the plasma screening. The strong screening remarkably alters the photoionization cross sections near the ionization thresholds. It is concluded that a great error may arise if photoionization cross sections for isolated atoms or ions are employed for numerical simulations of astrophysical and laboratory plasmas.