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Physical Review Letters

Diamagnetic Structure of Na Rydberg States

Myron L. Zimmerman, Jarbas Caiado de Castro, Daniel Kleppner

Published Apr 17, 1978• 83 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present an experimental survey of a group of Rydberg states of sodium in magnetic fields up to 6 T, where levels from different terms overlap and interact strongly. The observed energy levels and relative line intensities for even-parity ${m}_{l}=1$ terms in the vicinity $n=28$ are in good agreement with calculations based on a numerical diagonalization using spherical basis states in the range $n=25\ensuremath{-}31$.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.40.1083

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We present an experimental survey of a group of Rydberg states of sodium in magnetic fields up to 6 T, where levels from different terms overlap and interact strongly. The observed energy levels and relative line intensities for even-parity ml=1{m}_{l}=1ml​=1 terms in the vicinity n=28n=28n=28 are in good agreement with calculations based on a numerical diagonalization using spherical basis states in the range n=25\ensuremath−31n=25\ensuremath{-}31n=25\ensuremath−31.
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We present results of an experimental survey of the n=15n=15n=15 state of Na in electric fields from 0 to 4 kV/cm. Both linear and higher-order Stark effects play important roles. States with low ∣m∣|m|∣m∣ show marked differences from hydrogenic behavior, particularly in the vicinity of level crossings. Computed values for the energy levels are in good agreement with the data. The experimental method provides a simple technique for populating selected Stark or angular momentum levels of a Rydberg state.
A spectroscopic study of Rydberg states of helium (n = 30 and 45) in magnetic, electric and combined magnetic and electric fields with arbitrary relative orientations of the field vectors is presented. The emphasis is on two special cases where (i) the diamagnetic term is negligible and both paramagnetic Zeeman and Stark effects are linear (n = 30, B ≤ 120 mT and F = 0-78 V cm⁻¹), and (ii) the diamagnetic term is dominant and the Stark effect is linear (n = 45, B = 277 mT and F = 0-8 V cm⁻¹). Both cases correspond to regimes where the interactions induced by the electric and magnetic fields are much weaker than the Coulomb interaction, but much stronger than the spin-orbit interaction. The experimental spectra are compared to spectra calculated by determining the eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian matrix describing helium Rydberg states in the external fields. The spectra and the calculated energy-level diagrams in external fields reveal avoided crossings between levels of different m ₗ values and pronounced m ₁-mixing effects at all angles between the electric- and magnetic-field vectors other than 0. These observations are discussed in the context of the development of a method to generate dense samples of cold atoms and molecules in a magnetic trap following Rydberg-Stark deceleration.
Abstract A spectroscopic study of Rydberg states of helium ( n = 30 and 45) in magnetic, electric and combined magnetic and electric fields with arbitrary relative orientations of the field vectors is presented. The emphasis is on two special cases where (i) the diamagnetic term is negligible and both paramagnetic Zeeman and Stark effects are linear ( n = 30, B ≤ 120 mT and F = 0–78 V cm −1 ), and (ii) the diamagnetic term is dominant and the Stark effect is linear ( n = 45, B = 277 mT and F = 0–8 V cm −1 ). Both cases correspond to regimes where the interactions induced by the electric and magnetic fields are much weaker than the Coulomb interaction, but much stronger than the spin–orbit interaction. The experimental spectra are compared to spectra calculated by determining the eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian matrix describing helium Rydberg states in the external fields. The spectra and the calculated energy-level diagrams in external fields reveal avoided crossings between levels of different m l values and pronounced m l -mixing effects at all angles between the electric- and magnetic-field vectors other than 0. These observations are discussed in the context of the development of a method to generate dense samples of cold atoms and molecules in a magnetic trap following Rydberg–Stark deceleration.