arXiv:1103.6221 · Physical Review A
Measurement of absolute transition frequencies of Rb87 to nS and nD Rydberg states by means of electromagnetically induced transparency
Markus Mack, Florian Karlewski, H. Hattermann, Simone Höckh, Florian Jessen, Daniel Cano, József Fortágh
Abstract
We report the measurement of absolute excitation frequencies of $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ to $nS$ and $nD$ Rydberg states. The Rydberg transition frequencies are obtained by observing electromagnetically induced transparency on a rubidium vapor cell. The accuracy of the measurement of each state is $\ensuremath{\lesssim}$1 MHz, which is achieved by frequency stabilizing the two diode lasers employed for the spectroscopy to a frequency comb and a frequency comb calibrated wavelength meter, respectively. Based on the spectroscopic data we determine the quantum defects of ${}^{87}\text{Rb}$, and compare it with previous measurements on ${}^{85}\text{Rb}$. We determine the ionization frequency from the $5{S}_{1/2}(F=1)$ ground state of ${}^{87}\text{Rb}$ to $1010.029 164 6(3)\mathrm{THz}$, providing the binding energy of the ground state with an accuracy improved by two orders of magnitude.