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Physical Review A

Field-ionization processes in high Rydberg states of Rb under a rotating electric field

Shigeru Yamada, H. Funahashi, M. Shibata, K. Kominato, Yasuaki Kishimoto, M. Tada, T. Haseyama, Isamu OGAWA, S. Matsuki, Kazuhiro Yamamoto

Published Sep 20, 2005• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Field ionization of high Rydberg manifold states $(n=112\text{--}137)$ of rubidium-85 under a rotating electric field has been investigated experimentally and theoretically. Applying a rapidly reversed electric field with a small static perpendicular field to rotate the total electric field around zero, we have observed substantial increase of the fraction of the tunneling field-ionization process and a profound broadening of its ionization peak over a wide range of field strengths with increasing transverse electric field. The observed tunneling field-ionization fraction is almost independent of the slew rate of the applied electric field, and also on the principal quantum number $n$ over the range investigated. To compare with these experimental results, theoretical calculations have been performed with a successive two-step regime. As the first step we calculated the redistributions of magnetic quantum number ${m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}$ and parabolic quantum number ${n}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{n}_{2}$ of the states under the rotating electric field. Then the following time evolution of the manifold states with $\ensuremath{\mid}{m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\leqslant}3$ was traced on the Stark map in a coherent as well as an incoherent model. The calculated results are generally in good agreement with the experimental ones. The increase of the tunneling field-ionization fraction under a rotating electric field plays an essential role in achieving the high efficiency in the recently proposed selective-field-ionization scheme for high Rydberg atoms.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.72.033414

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Field ionization of high Rydberg manifold states (n=112–137)(n=112\text{--}137)(n=112–137) of rubidium-85 under a rotating electric field has been investigated experimentally and theoretically. Applying a rapidly reversed electric field with a small static perpendicular field to rotate the total electric field around zero, we have observed substantial increase of the fraction of the tunneling field-ionization process and a profound broadening of its ionization peak over a wide range of field strengths with increasing transverse electric field. The observed tunneling field-ionization fraction is almost independent of the slew rate of the applied electric field, and also on the principal quantum number nnn over the range investigated. To compare with these experimental results, theoretical calculations have been performed with a successive two-step regime. As the first step we calculated the redistributions of magnetic quantum number m\ensuremathℓ{m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}m\ensuremathℓ​ and parabolic quantum number n1\ensuremath−n2{n}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{n}_{2}n1​\ensuremath−n2​ of the states under the rotating electric field. Then the following time evolution of the manifold states with \ensuremath∣m\ensuremathℓ\ensuremath∣\ensuremath⩽3\ensuremath{\mid}{m}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\leqslant}3\ensuremath∣m\ensuremathℓ​\ensuremath∣\ensuremath⩽3 was traced on the Stark map in a coherent as well as an incoherent model. The calculated results are generally in good agreement with the experimental ones. The increase of the tunneling field-ionization fraction under a rotating electric field plays an essential role in achieving the high efficiency in the recently proposed selective-field-ionization scheme for high Rydberg atoms.
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We report experiments in which positronium (Ps) atoms, optically excited to Rydberg states with principal quantum numbers nnn in the range 18--25, were selectively ionized by both static and pulsed electric fields. The experiments were modeled using Monte Carlo simulations that include tunnel ionization rates calculated for hydrogen and scaled by the Ps reduced mass. Our measurements exhibit a small disagreement with the calculated tunnel ionization rates. Despite this we show that the electric fields in which different Ps states are ionized are sufficiently separated to allow selective field-ionization methods to be used in typical experimental conditions.
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