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Stark and Zeeman effects on laser cooling of positronium

CHARLES D. DERMER

Published Jan 1, 1990• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Theoretical work on laser cooling of Positronium, including effects of external magnetic and electric fields, is reviewed and extended.

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We study realistic 3D laser cooling of positronium (Ps) in the presence of a magnetic field. Triplet and singlet states mixing due to the magnetic field, and dynamical Stark effect, generally produce higher annihilation rates than in the zero-field case. 3D cooling is efficient only at very low field $B\ensuremath{\lesssim}50\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mT}$ and at high field values B⪆0.7TB⪆0.7\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{T}B⪆0.7T. Near 100ns100\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ns}100ns long laser pulses, spectrally broad enough to cover most of the Ps Doppler profile and with energy in the mJ\mathrm{mJ}mJ range, are required to cool Ps. Simulations based on full diagonalization of the Stark and Zeeman Hamiltonian and a kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm exactly solving the rate equations indicate that an efficient cooling (typically from 300K300\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}300K down to below 50K50\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}50K) is possible even in a magnetic field. We also propose 3D moving molasses cooling that can produce a well-defined monochromatic Ps beam useful for applications.
The orbital ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}}_{\mathit{L}}$\ensuremath{\cdot}B and diamagnetic A2{\mathit{A}}^{2}A2 interactions of electrons and positrons with an external magnetic field lead to a small quadratic Zeeman shift in the L=0, mS{\mathit{m}}_{\mathit{S}}mS​=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1 states of positronium, which, unlike the mS{\mathit{m}}_{\mathit{S}}mS​=0 states, are not affected by the usual, spin-induced Zeeman shifts. For the n=1 states, this shift would be about 2 kHz in a field of 1000 G. These additional shifts are the same in all spin states for L=0 but do depend on n.
A Surko-type positron trap has been used to produce intense positron pulses, and thus a dilute positronium (Ps) gas in vacuum with an initial density of 10^7 cm-3. This gas was excited with lasers for a variety of experiments. n = 2 atoms were prepared using a single-photon excitation scheme (1S to 2P) in controlled electric and magnetic fields for studies of Stark and Zeeman effects, measurements of Ps cooling via Doppler spectroscopy, and for the produciton of ensembles of atoms in pure 2S states. The first measurements of Ps excitation to specific Rydberg-Stark states were performed via a two-color two-photon excitation scheme ( 1S to 2P to nS/nD). Ps atoms in low-field–seeking Rydberg Stark states were prepared at the entrance of an electrostatic quadrupole guide which was used to control the trajectories and velocity distributions of the Ps atoms. These advances, together with the results from numerical simulations, suggest that these methods could be used in to perform Stark deceleration and trapping of Rydberg Ps, high-precision Ps spectroscopy, and to create positron-atom bound states.