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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Intensity-induced chirped Rydberg wavepackets: a new way of creating short light pulses

Lambertus D. Noordam, Harm Geert Muller, A. ten Wolde, H. B. van Linden van den Heuvell

Published Apr 28, 1990• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The authors report calculations on the time evolution of a Rydberg wavepacket excited with a short intense laser pulse. The wavepacket is chirped and compressed due to the AC Stark shift of the Rydberg states. This effect can be used to shorten optical pulses ranging from the IR to the UV regime. For a practical case, reduction of the duration of femtosecond pulses by a factor of six is predicted.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/23/8/004

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The authors report calculations on the time evolution of a Rydberg wavepacket excited with a short intense laser pulse. The wavepacket is chirped and compressed due to the AC Stark shift of the Rydberg states. This effect can be used to shorten optical pulses ranging from the IR to the UV regime. For a practical case, reduction of the duration of femtosecond pulses by a factor of six is predicted.
The authors discuss a model excitation of Rydberg wavepackets by short laser pulses. They present an exact non-perturbative solution for a large class of optical pulse shapes. The analysis of exact solutions leads to a formulation and proof of the general approximation scheme (Wigner-Weisskopf-like) valid for arbitrary pulse shapes and a wide range of pulse frequencies, durations and intensities. It is found that the arrangement of the wavefunction depends strongly on the shape of the laser pulse. Coherence of the packet seems to reflect the smoothness of the pulse. Finally, the authors show the equivalence of the saturation processes and the free evolution in the creation of the coherence of the wavepacket, in the case of non-smooth pulse shapes.
Recent advances in the ultrashort laser technology have spawned a series of new directions of research in atomic and molecular physics. This work compounds two studies on the control and probing of atomic matter by ultrafast laser pulses. The first study is concerned with the control of quantum wavepackets focusing by chirped, ultrashort laser pulses. The ability to control wavepacket focusing is important for the achievement of specific excitation pathways, for controlling chemical reactivity or even molecular synthesis. In this work, we present a general method for wavepacket control in the weak field limit. Numerical simulations involving the ICN molecule confirm our theoretical framework. The second study refers to the ionization of sodium Rydberg states via half-cycle pulses (HCPs). For this process, our full quantum-mechanical calculations demonstrate an asymmetry in both ionization rates and ionization spectrum between the downhill (Stark red-shifted) and uphill (Stark blue- shifted) states. The asymmetry is explained by appealing to a semi-classical model of the interfering ionization pathways.
Atoms in high-lying Rydberg states with large values of principal quantum number n, n ≥300, form a valuable laboratory in which to explore the control and manipulation of quantum states of mesoscopic size using carefully tailored sequences of short electric field pulses whose characteristic times (duration and/or rise/fall times) are less than the classical electron orbital period. Atoms react to such pulse sequences very differently than to short laser or microwave pulses providing the foundation for a number of new approaches to engineering atomic wavefunctions. The remarkable level of control that can be achieved is illustrated with reference to the generation of localized wavepackets in Bohr-like near-circular orbits, and the production of non-dispersive wavepackets under periodic driving and their transport to targeted regions of phase space. New protocols continue to be developed that will allow even tighter control with the promise of new insights into quantum-classical correspondence, information storage in mesoscopic systems, physics in the ultra-fast ultra-intense regime, and non-linear dynamics in driven systems.
Atoms in high-lying Rydberg states with large values of the principal quantum number n, n {ge} 300, form a valuable laboratory in which to explore the control and manipulation of quantum states of mesoscopic size using carefully tailored sequences of short electric field pulses whose characteristic times (duration and/or rise/fall times) are less than the classical electron orbital period. Atoms react to such pulse sequences very differently than to short laser or microwave pulses providing the foundation for a number of new approaches to engineering atomic wavefunctions. The remarkable level of control that can be achieved is illustrated with reference to the generation of localized wavepackets in Bohr-like near-circular orbits, and the production of non-dispersive wavepackets under periodic driving and their transport to targeted regions of phase space. The testing of these control schemes, together with their reversibility, through the creation of electric dipole echoes in Stark wavepackets, is also described. New protocols continue to be developed that will allow even tighter control with the promise of new insights into quantum-classical correspondence, information storage in mesoscopic systems, physics in the ultra-fast ultra-intense regime and nonlinear dynamics in driven systems.