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Quantized Eigenstates of a Classical Particle in a Ponderomotive Potential

Authors: I.Y. Dodin and N.J. Fisch

Date of PPPL Report: December 2004

Published as: Quantumlike Dynamics of Classical Particles in Ponderomotive Potentials
Published in: Physical Review Letters 95:115001 (September 2005) 4pp.

The average dynamics of a classical particle under the action of a high-frequency radiation resembles quantum particle motion in a conservative field with an effective de Broglie wavelength λ equal to the particle average displacement on a period of oscillations. In a "quasi-classical" field, with a spatial scale large compared to λ, the guiding center motion is adiabatic. Otherwise, a particle exhibits quantized eigenstates in a ponderomotive potential well, can tunnel through classically forbidden regions and experience reflection from an attractive potential. Discrete energy levels are also found for a "crystal" formed by multiple ponderomotive barriers.