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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

High resolution spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms in a magnetic field

Michael M. Kash, George R. Welch, Chun-ho Iu, Long Hsu, Daniel Kleppner

Published Apr 24, 1989• 1 citation
OpenAlex

Abstract

The behavior of Rydberg atoms in a strong magnetic field demonstrates many aspects of modern atomic physics. While the basic goal is the accurate prediction of energy levels and wave functions, the results may be interpreted in several ways. These Include the manifestation of dynamic symmetry and symmetry breaking in the distribution and anticrossing of energy levels. The high resolution afforded by cw dye lasers allows the stringent testing of theory and is also desirable in the study of energy field regimes not presently accessible to theory.

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The behavior of Rydberg atoms in a strong magnetic field demonstrates many aspects of modern atomic physics. While the basic goal is the accurate prediction of energy levels and wave functions, the results may be interpreted in several ways. These Include the manifestation of dynamic symmetry and symmetry breaking in the distribution and anticrossing of energy levels. The high resolution afforded by cw dye lasers allows the stringent testing of theory and is also desirable in the study of energy field regimes not presently accessible to theory.
This paper summarizes a long series of experiments that have been done on Rydberg states of Rb. The basic experimental technique that has been used is atomic-beam laser spectroscopy which allows both low-resolution and high-resolution studies. Excitation of Rydberg states is provided by single-photon absorption from a suitably frequency-doubled rhodamine 6G6G6G tunable laser. Detection is done by field ionization and ion counting. These techniques have allowed us to study the critical ionizing field, which has been found to follow classical, hydrogenic behavior closely. Rydberg states of Rb have been observed from n=28n=28n=28 up to n>100n>100n>100. High-resolution spectroscopic studies have led to measurement of the fine structure for np\mathrm{np}np levels located between n=28n=28n=28 and n=60n=60n=60, as well as the isotope shift of the ground state, $\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\nu}=(172\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}15)$ MHz. Anomalies in the intensity ratio of the doublet $5s\ensuremath{-}np$ transitions have been observed and interpreted as relativistic effects. Perturbations by weak and strong dc electric field are reported. In the case of weak electric fields it is possible to evaluate the polarizability. In the case of strong dc electric fields, new phenomena have been observed and analyzed. We also find experimental evidence of selective photoionization in the presence of an appropriate dc electric field, which could have some applications in laser isotope separation. Finally, we give the preliminary results of an experiment on the effect of a strong nonresonant electromagnetic field on high-lying Rydberg states.
Using the numerical techniques that have been successful in elucidating the low-lying part of the level scheme of atoms in magnetic fields pertaining to white dwarf stars and neutron stars, we have computed the energies and wave functions of ``circular'' Rydberg states (i.e., with \ensuremath{\Vert}m\ensuremath{\Vert}=n-1) with \ensuremath{\Vert}m\ensuremath{\Vert}=24--35 for laboratory fields up to several tens of teslas. We can, therefore, follow a number of physical properties, such as transition frequencies and radiative decay times, of circular states as functions of the magnetic field strength and make predictions that should be verifiable experimentally.
Although the hydrogen atom has naturally served as the basis for extensive theoretical studies of the physics of highly excited atoms in strong external fields, experiments with this fundamentally important species in magnetic fields have not been reported, except for the most recent ones carried out in our laboratory.1,2 We report new results of studies on the spectroscopy of the atom in static homogeneous magnetic fields of strength B ≲ 6 T at excitation energies from high Rydberg states (n ≳ 20) into the ionization region (E ≲ +30 cm−1).
A robust time-dependent approach to the high-resolution photoabsorption spectrum of Rydberg atoms in magnetic fields is presented. Traditionally we have to numerically diagonalize a huge matrix to solve the eigen-problem and then to obtain the spectral information. This matrix operation requires high-speed computers with large memories. Alternatively we present a unitary but very easily parallelized time-evolution method in an inexpensive way, which is very accurate and stable even in long-time scale evolution. With this method, we perform the spectral calculation of hydrogen atom in magnetic field, which agrees well with the experimental observation. It can be extended to study the dynamics of Rydberg atoms in more complicated cases such as in combined electric and magnetic fields.
The ionization of 6sns1S06sns^{1}S_{0}6sns1S0​ Rydberg states of 138Ba^{138}\mathrm{Ba}138Ba has been investigated by high-resolution electron spectroscopy. The Rydberg states were excited by two cw dye lasers via the 6s6p1P16s6p^{1}P_{1}6s6p1P1​ level. The electron spectra show rich structure between 0.025 and 3 eV, largely attributable to collisional (Penning) ionization, photoionization, and autoionizing transitions. The first process might be interpreted as superelastic scattering of the Rydberg electron by optically pumped Ba(6s6p1P1)\mathrm{Ba}(6s6p^{1}P_{1})Ba(6s6p1P1​) or Ba(6s5d1D2)\mathrm{Ba}(6s5d^{1}D_{2})Ba(6s5d1D2​) atoms.