Confinement effects on decay rate of surface electron states over liquid helium

Abstract

The decay rate of excited states of surface electrons in liquid helium, trapped in a quantum dot system, is evaluated, taking into account the process of spontaneous radiation of two-ripplons with short wavelength. We find that the values of the decay rate in later process are rather higher than those for the one-ripplon process previously calculated. The upper-bound limit lifetime of excited states of surface electrons in a quantum dot is found to be τ<10⁻⁶–10⁻⁷ s.