The effect of the electric field on the spectral line shape

A. S. Bankovskii, Pavel A Apanasevich

Eugene Oks

Abstract We consider an isolated two-electron Rydberg atom/ion, where the average distance of the inner electron from the nucleus is much smaller than the average distance of the outer Rydberg electron from the nucleus. We calculate analytically the shape of any spectral line emitted by the inner electron under the rotating electric field of the outer electron—by using the O 4 symmetry of hydrogenic atoms/ions. By applying the obtained analytical expressions to the example of the Ly-alpha line, we arrive, in particular, to a peculiar result . Namely, as the spectral line splits into several components, the most intense components exhibit a quadratic Stark effect with respect to the electric field of the outer electron (though it is linear with respect to the dipole moment of the inner electron), while one would intuitively expect a linear dependence on the electric field of the outer electron since the subsystem Z + e is hydrogenic. We provide a physical explanation of this peculiar result.

Toshiyuki Shimada, Hiroyuki Suzuki

An external field applied to dye doped polymers which have inhomogeneous dispersion in their absorption spectra causes a shift in the absorption of the dye molecules. This, in turn, changes the line shapes of persistent spectral holes1). The Stark effect has been applied to optical storage2) and optical computing3). It has been also used as a powerful tool for investigating such physical profiles of materials as the difference between the effective molecular electric dipole moments in the host matrix in the ground and excited states which is related to hole burning4),5).

M. W. P. Strandberg

Hansruedi Gygax, Alexander Rebane, H. Schwoerer +1 more

Persistent spectral hole-burning (PSHB) is a versatile tool to study Stark effect in solids where impurity spectra is strongly inhomogeneously broadened. At liquid helium temperatures impurity homogeneous zero-phonon line widths are small (γhom~10–2-10–4cm–1) and narrow holes can be burnt in the inhomogeneous distribution by illumination with narrow band laser(Δνlaser < γhom) U1- Stark effect alters the shape of narrow spectral holes depending on the Stark shift (splitting) of impurity energy levels, orientation of the impurities, strength and orientation of the electric field, as well as on the properties of the matrix [2].