Decay of highly excited atoms in an electric field

The critical field strength is calculated at which the barrier disappears for an electron located in the field of a coulomb center and characterized by prescribed parabolic quantum numbers. The highly excited atoms lifetime in dependence on the field strength deviation from the critical value are obtained. The decay dynamics of highly excited atoms on passage of a beam of highly excited atoms through an electric field is investigated. The experimental data on ionization of highly excited atoms in an electric field are analyzed