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arXiv:1611.01308 · Physical Review A

Preparation of circular Rydberg states in helium using the crossed-fields method

Valentina Zhelyazkova, S. D. Hogan

Published Aug 22, 2016• 13 citations
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Abstract

Helium atoms have been prepared in the circular $|n=55,\ensuremath{\ell}=54,{m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}=+54\ensuremath{\rangle}$ Rydberg state using the crossed electric and magnetic fields method. The atoms, initially traveling in pulsed supersonic beams, were photoexcited from the metastable $1s2s\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}S_{1}$ level to the outermost, ${m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}=0$ Rydberg-Stark state with $n=55$ in the presence of a strong electric field and weak perpendicular magnetic field. Following excitation, the electric field was adiabatically switched off causing the atoms to evolve into the circular state with ${m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}=+54$ defined with respect to the magnetic-field quantization axis. The circular states were detected by ramped electric-field ionization along the magnetic-field axis. The dependence of the circular state production efficiency on the strength of the excitation electric field, and the electric-field switch-off time was studied, and microwave spectroscopy of the circular-to-circular $|55,54,+54\ensuremath{\rangle}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}|56,55,+55\ensuremath{\rangle}$ transition at $\ensuremath{\sim}38.5$ GHz was performed.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.94.023415

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Helium atoms have been prepared in the circular ∣n=55,\ensuremathℓ=54,m\ensuremathℓ=+54\ensuremath⟩|n=55,\ensuremath{\ell}=54,{m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}=+54\ensuremath{\rangle}∣n=55,\ensuremathℓ=54,m\ensuremathℓ​=+54\ensuremath⟩ Rydberg state using the crossed electric and magnetic fields method. The atoms, initially traveling in pulsed supersonic beams, were photoexcited from the metastable 1s2s3S11s2s\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}S_{1}1s2s3S1​ level to the outermost, m\ensuremathℓ=0{m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}=0m\ensuremathℓ​=0 Rydberg-Stark state with n=55n=55n=55 in the presence of a strong electric field and weak perpendicular magnetic field. Following excitation, the electric field was adiabatically switched off causing the atoms to evolve into the circular state with m\ensuremathℓ=+54{m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}=+54m\ensuremathℓ​=+54 defined with respect to the magnetic-field quantization axis. The circular states were detected by ramped electric-field ionization along the magnetic-field axis. The dependence of the circular state production efficiency on the strength of the excitation electric field, and the electric-field switch-off time was studied, and microwave spectroscopy of the circular-to-circular ∣55,54,+54\ensuremath⟩\ensuremath→∣56,55,+55\ensuremath⟩|55,54,+54\ensuremath{\rangle}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}|56,55,+55\ensuremath{\rangle}∣55,54,+54\ensuremath⟩\ensuremath→∣56,55,+55\ensuremath⟩ transition at \ensuremath∼38.5\ensuremath{\sim}38.5\ensuremath∼38.5 GHz was performed.
Circular Rydberg states with n=70n=70n=70 have been prepared in helium using a modified version of the crossed-fields method. This approach to the preparation of high-nnn circular Rydberg states overcomes limitations of the standard crossed-fields method which arise at this, and higher, values of nnn. The experiments were performed with atoms traveling in pulsed supersonic beams that were initially laser photoexcited from the metastable 1s2s3S11s2s\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}S_{1}1s2s3S1​ level to the 1s73s3S11s73s\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}S_{1}1s73s3S1​ level by resonance-enhanced two-color two-photon excitation in a magnetic field of 16.154 G. These excited atoms were then polarized using a perpendicular electric field of 0.844 V/cm, and transferred by a pulse of microwave radiation to the state that, when adiabatically depolarized, evolves into the n=70n=70n=70 circular state in zero electric field. The excited atoms were detected by state-selective electric field ionization. Each step of the circular state preparation process was validated by comparison with the calculated atomic energy-level structure in the perpendicular electric and magnetic fields used. Of the atoms initially excited to the 1s73s3S11s73s\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}S_{1}1s73s3S1​ level, $\ensuremath{\sim}80%$ were transferred to the n=70n=70n=70 circular state. At these high values of $n, \mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}n=1$ circular-to-circular Rydberg state transitions occur at frequencies below 20 GHz. Consequently, atoms in these states, and the circular state preparation process presented here, are well suited to hybrid cavity QED experiments with Rydberg atoms and superconducting microwave circuits.
Helium atoms in pulsed supersonic beams have been prepared in the circular Rydberg state with principal quantum number n=55n=55n=55 using the crossed-fields method. High-resolution microwave spectroscopy of the transition from this state to the n=56n=56n=56 circular state, at frequencies close to 38.5 GHz, was performed to measure static magnetic and electric fields along the axis of propagation of the beams with quantum-state-selective detection by pulsed-electric-field ionization. Magnetic fields of between 1.3 and 1.6 mT were measured to a relative precision of $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}900\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nT}$ by rf spectroscopy and $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.3\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\textmu{}\mathrm{T}$ by microwave spectroscopy, with absolute calibration, accounting for Doppler shifts and effects of weak stray electric fields to $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2.0\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\textmu{}\mathrm{T}$ and a spatial resolution of $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.87$ mm. Magnetic-field gradients could be determined to a precision of $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.49\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\textmu{}\mathrm{T}/\mathrm{mm}$ ($\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}53$ nT/mm) over a baseline of 1.74 mm (35 mm). To perform these measurements, static electric fields and contributions from the motional Stark effect were minimized, and residual electric fields in each of the three spatial dimensions in the apparatus were measured to an absolute precision of between $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}85$ and $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}750\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\textmu{}\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}$. The methods used in this work can be transferred to experiments with other atoms or molecules. They are therefore well suited for applications in minimally invasive, absolute static-field magnetometry and electrometry, for example, at hybrid interfaces between Rydberg atoms and superconducting circuits; in tests of bound-state QED or the weak equivalence principle with atomic or molecular hydrogen, antihydrogen, or positronium; and in measurements of the absolute neutrino mass by cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy.
Rydberg states of atomic helium with principal quantum numbers ranging from n=20n=20n=20 to n=100n=100n=100 have been prepared by non-resonance-enhanced single-color two-photon excitation from the metastable 23S12\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{{}^{3}S}_{1}23S1​ state. Photoexcitation was carried out using linearly and circularly polarized pulsed laser radiation. In the case of excitation with circularly polarized radiation, Rydberg states with azimuthal quantum number $|{m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}|=2$ were prepared in zero electric field and in homogeneous electric fields oriented parallel to the propagation axis of the laser radiation. In sufficiently strong electric fields, individual Rydberg--Stark states were resolved spectroscopically, highlighting the suitability of non-resonance-enhanced multiphoton excitation schemes for the preparation of long-lived high-$|{m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}|$ hydrogenic Rydberg states for deceleration and trapping experiments. Applications of similar schemes for Doppler-free excitation of positronium atoms to Rydberg states are also discussed.
Helium atoms travelling in pulsed supersonic beams have been photoexcited from the metastable 1s2s 3 S 1 level to Rydberg states with principal quantum numbers exceeding 400 by resonance-enhanced two-colour two-photon excitation using narrow-bandwidth CW laser radiation. To achieve this, the photoexcitation region was shielded and stray electric fields cancelled using a cubic arrangement of 80 mm × 80 mm copper plates. The excited Rydberg atoms were detected by pulsed electric field ionisation downstream from this photoexcitation region. Comparison of the experimental spectra with the results of calculations indicate that the stray electric fields at the position of Rydberg state photoexcitation were reduced to as low as 160 μ V cm –1 . Using helium in these experiments minimises temporal changes in the stray fields resulting from surface adsorption. Measurements performed 70 h apart indicate that the rate of change of these fields was on the order of 2 μ V cm –1 per h, making beams of metastable helium atoms ideally suited as probes for high precision electrometry in spectroscopy experiments involving less readily available species such as positronium or antihydrogen.
We describe the creation of circular states of hydrogen by adiabatic transfer of a Rydberg state in crossed electric and magnetic fields, and also by adiabatic passage in a rotating microwave field. The latter method permits rapid switching between the two circular states of a given nnn manifold. The two methods are demonstrated experimentally, and results are presented of an analysis of the field ionization properties of the circular states. An application for the circular states is illustrated by millimeter-wave resonance in hydrogen of the $n=29\ensuremath{\rightarrow}n=30$ transition.
The effects of weak electric fields on resonant energy transfer between NH3{\mathrm{NH}}_{3}NH3​ in the XXX 1A1{^{1}A}_{1}1A1​ ground electronic state and Rydberg He atoms in triplet states with principal quantum numbers n=36n=36n=36--41 have been studied in a crossed-beam apparatus. For these values of nnn, electric dipole transitions between the Rydberg states that evolve adiabatically to the $|ns\ensuremath{\rangle}$ and $|np\ensuremath{\rangle}$ states in zero electric field can be tuned into resonance with the ground-state inversion transitions in NH3{\mathrm{NH}}_{3}NH3​ using electric fields, with energy transfer occurring via F\"orster resonance. In the experiments the Rydberg He atoms, traveling in pulsed supersonic beams, were prepared by resonant two-photon excitation from the metastable 1s2s3S11s2s\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{^{3}S}_{1}1s2s3S1​ level and crossed an effusive beam of NH3{\mathrm{NH}}_{3}NH3​ before being detected by state-selective pulsed-electric-field ionization. The resonant-energy-transfer process was identified by monitoring changes in the ionization signal from the $|ns\ensuremath{\rangle}$ and $|np\ensuremath{\rangle}$ Rydberg states for each value of nnn. The electric-field dependence of the experimental data is in good agreement with the results of calculations in which the resonant dipole-dipole coupling between the collision partners was accounted for.