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Physical Review

Optical Quenching of Metastable Hydrogen

Wolfgang Zernik

Published Oct 1, 1963• 38 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper discusses the theory of the quenching of a metastable atomic state by means of a high-frequency electromagnetic wave. The particular problem for which numerical results are presented is that of the quenching of the metastable $2S$ state of atomic hydrogen by means of the light from a ruby laser. The general theory is worked out both by means of the quantum electrodynamical perturbation theory and by means of a strong signal theory. The relation between these two techniques is discussed.

DOI
10.1103/physrev.132.320

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This paper is an extension of a previous one and discusses the theory of the quenching of the metastable $2S$ state of atomic hydrogen by means of optical radiation, for example by the light from a ruby laser. The case discussed is that for which the incident intensity is sufficiently weak for the usual quantum-electrodynamical perturbation theory to be valid. A procedure developed by Schwartz and others is used to carry out the sum over intermediate states without explicit enumeration. The results are given for a range of incident wavelengths from 5000 \AA{} to 5\ensuremath{\mu}. For unpolarized light from a ruby laser (6934 \AA{}), the total cross section for quenching is found to be ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{Q}=1.27\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}22}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$. The cross section for coherent scattering has also been calculated for the same range of wavelengths; for ruby laser light, the total cross section for scattering is found to be ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{S}=1.03\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}23}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$.

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This paper discusses the theory of the quenching of a metastable atomic state by means of a high-frequency electromagnetic wave. The particular problem for which numerical results are presented is that of the quenching of the metastable 2S2S2S state of atomic hydrogen by means of the light from a ruby laser. The general theory is worked out both by means of the quantum electrodynamical perturbation theory and by means of a strong signal theory. The relation between these two techniques is discussed.
This paper is an extension of a previous one and discusses the theory of the quenching of the metastable 2S2S2S state of atomic hydrogen by means of optical radiation, for example by the light from a ruby laser. The case discussed is that for which the incident intensity is sufficiently weak for the usual quantum-electrodynamical perturbation theory to be valid. A procedure developed by Schwartz and others is used to carry out the sum over intermediate states without explicit enumeration. The results are given for a range of incident wavelengths from 5000 \AA{} to 5\ensuremath{\mu}. For unpolarized light from a ruby laser (6934 \AA{}), the total cross section for quenching is found to be ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{Q}=1.27\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}22}$ cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2. The cross section for coherent scattering has also been calculated for the same range of wavelengths; for ruby laser light, the total cross section for scattering is found to be ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{S}=1.03\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}23}$ cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2.
This paper discusses the general theory of two-photon ionization of a hydrogenic state in the nonrelativistic dipole approximation. An application is made to the photoionization of the metastable 2S2S2S state of atomic hydrogen by optical radiation, for example, by the light from a ruby laser. The sum over intermediate states is carried out exactly by means of an implicit technique. The results are given for a range of wave-lengths from the threshold at 7290 down to 4556 \AA{}. At 6943 \AA{}, the total cross section per unit intensity is found to be 5.35\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}29}$ cm4{\mathrm{cm}}^{4}cm4 ${\mathrm{W}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. The lowest order damping corrections to the perturbation-theory results are worked out.
The time-dependent theory of the Stark quenching of 2S2S2S states in hydrogen and helium is developed for high electric fields, fields for which the Stark matrix element is large compared to the state separations. The metastable 2S2S2S state of an atom is mixed with two PPP states by the field, and the subsequent decay is described.
The authors report the observation of the 1S-2S two-photon transition in atomic hydrogen in an atomic beam, excited by light from a narrow-band continuous-wave laser. The excitation takes place in a collision-free environment and detection of the resonance is carried out by Stark-quenching the metastable atoms some distance from the interaction region. This approach removes the limitations of cell excitation employed in previous experiments with continuous-wave lasers, and should allow the full precision of modern tunable laser techniques to be applied to the 1S-2S transition. It also gives a new method for producing a collimated beam of metastable atoms which has particular applications to a variety of future experiments with cold hydrogen.
A beam source of atomic hydrogen is described which produces metastable atoms in the 2S1/2 state by optical pumping. A beam flux of 1016 atoms/s is generated in the ground state. The atoms in the beam pass in front of a lamp producing Lyman-β (1026 Å) radiation, where some of them are excited to the 3P level and cascade with a branching ratio of 12% to the 2S1/2 state. The number of metastable atoms produced is measured by quenching them with an electric field and detecting the emitted Lyman-α (1216 Å) radiation. Beams of 106 metastable atoms/s were obtained. Using the Bethe-Lamb theory for the quenching process, a metastable beam effective temperature of 100 K was measured.