Energies and lifetimes of xenon Rydberg states near a metal surface

We present calculations of the lifetime broadening and the shifts of the Rydberg states of a xenon atom near a metal surface. The Xe atom is modeled using an effective potential that accounts for the experimentally observed quantum defects. The hybridization of the Xe levels are found to be very different from the hybridization of the corresponding Rydberg levels of a hydrogen atom. The Xe level shifts and broadenings exhibit a relatively complicated dependence on atom-surface separation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.