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Physical Review A

Large angular-momentum changing in a short half-cycle pulse interaction with a Rydberg atom

Imants Bersons, A. Kulsh

Published Oct 1, 1999• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show that, in contrast to multiphoton absorption in atoms, the remote region from a nucleus is dominant in the process of a half-cycle pulse interaction with a Rydberg atom, and that this interaction produces a very large change in the angular momentum of the electron. We have found good agreement between classical trajectory Monte Carlo, semiclassical, and quantum-mechanical calculations for the energy distribution of the electron.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.60.3144

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We show that, in contrast to multiphoton absorption in atoms, the remote region from a nucleus is dominant in the process of a half-cycle pulse interaction with a Rydberg atom, and that this interaction produces a very large change in the angular momentum of the electron. We have found good agreement between classical trajectory Monte Carlo, semiclassical, and quantum-mechanical calculations for the energy distribution of the electron.
The angular and energy distributions of electrons emitted from Rydberg atoms prepared in the extreme Stark state and irradiated by a short half-cycle pulse are calculated in the framework of quantum-mechanical and semiclassical theories. It is supposed that the pulse direction coincides with the direction of orientation of atoms. The emitted electrons are concentrated in a small angle around the direction of orientation of the Rydberg atoms. Semiclassical theory shows that the width of the angular distribution scales as 1/qn3/2 and decreases with increase of either the principal quantum number n of the initial state or the momentum q transferred to the electron.
Transitions between states with the same principal quantum number n in the collision of a Rydberg atom with an ion are described within the classical approximation for the Rydberg electron. The quantum electron state is represented by an ensemble of classical trajectories. Within the dipole approximation for the interaction the final value of the orbital momentum l is calculated analytically for each initial trajectory in the ensemble. Averaging over the ensemble gives the distribution function over l. For the initial s state of the Rydberg atom the distribution functions are found also for the pairs of variables, namely: {the angular momentum; its projection on the collision velocity}; {projections of the angular momentum and the Runge - Lenz vector on the collision velocity} and {projections of the angular momentum and the Runge - Lenz vector on the plane perpendicular to the collision velocity}. The l-distributions for the orbitally polarized initial p and d Rydberg states with definite projections of the initial angular momentum on the velocity axis are also obtained. The influence of the non-Coulomb core is taken into account by an approximation. The final l-distributions (calculated for the initial s-state) are shifted towards the large-l values as the relative collision velocity vn decreases. Good agreement is achieved with the recent experimental data for Na(28d) and Na(26d) Rydberg atoms.
Localized wavepackets are created in high- n ( n ~ 300) Rydberg atoms which travel in near-circular orbits around the nucleus. Application of carefully tailored electric fields to quasi-1D Rydberg atoms creates coherent superpositions of Stark states with near extreme values of one of the components of the angular momentum. Half-cycle electric field pulses (HCPs) probe the dynamics of the circular states producing signature oscillations in survival probability that correspond to the expected wavepacket evolution. Although these wavepackets slowly dephase and lose their localization, their motion can be followed for several orbits and provides an analog of the original Bohr model, i.e., an electron in circular classical orbit around the nucleus. Measurements of the asymmetry in survival probability with increasing probe strength at different phases of the orbit confirm orbital motion of the wavepacket. Classical trajectory Monte-Carlo simulations (CTMC) agree with experimental results, and provide promising leads for future studies.
Fully quantum and classical trajectory Monte Carlo calculations are performed for a Rydberg alkali-metal atom that is kicked by a pulsed electric field. The two calculations are compared to recent experimental results through the ionization probability versus peak field strength. The energy distributions of the final electrons are compared between the two calculations. There is a qualitative difference between the classical and quantum momentum distributions which is measurable in principle. An experiment to detect the time-dependent precession of the orbital angular momentum in Cs is also proposed.
We study the ionization of Rydberg atoms in a single-cycle-pulse electric field based on both classical and quantum calculations. The ionization-probability curve exhibits a ``ripple'' structure as a function of the pulse duration and the field amplitude. These ripple structures are found to be dependent on the angular distribution of the initial state. A large electron-emission asymmetry is observed, and the ionized electron is almost completely emitted to one side of the atom except when the pulse length is roughly one Rydberg period. In both the long-pulse and the short-pulse regimes, larger electron energy can be expected from the ionization of lower-lying Rydberg states, matching the observation in a recent experiment [S. Li and R. R. Jones, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 143006 (2014)]. This trend is closely related to the electron-emission asymmetry associated with the field-direction change in a single-cycle pulse. The possible implications of the different energy transfer in a single-cycle pulse from that in a multicycle pulse are also discussed briefly for the strong-field ionization of the ground atomic state.