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Physical Review Letters

Normal-Incidence Electrostatic Rydberg Atom Mirror

E. Vliegen, Frédéric Merkt

Published Jul 19, 2006• 47 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A Rydberg atom mirror has been designed and its operational principle tested experimentally. A supersonic expansion containing H atoms moving with a velocity of 720 m/s initially propagates toward a quadrupolar electrostatic mirror. The H atoms are then photoexcited to n=27 Rydberg states with a positive Stark shift and move in a rapidly increasing electric field. The H atom beam is stopped in 4.8 micros, only 1.9 mm away from the photoexcitation spot, and is then reflected back. The reflection process is monitored by pulsed field ionization and imaging.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.97.033002

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A Rydberg atom mirror has been designed and its operational principle tested experimentally. A supersonic expansion containing H atoms moving with a velocity of 720 m/s initially propagates toward a quadrupolar electrostatic mirror. The H atoms are then photoexcited to n=27 Rydberg states with a positive Stark shift and move in a rapidly increasing electric field. The H atom beam is stopped in 4.8 micros, only 1.9 mm away from the photoexcitation spot, and is then reflected back. The reflection process is monitored by pulsed field ionization and imaging.
A three-dimensional trap for Rydberg atoms in selected Stark states has been realized experimentally. H atoms seeded in a supersonic expansion of Ar are excited to the low-field seeking n=30, k=25, |m|=0, 2 Rydberg-Stark states, decelerated from a mean initial velocity of 665 m/s to zero velocity in the laboratory frame and loaded into a three-dimensional electrostatic trap. The motion of the cold Rydberg atom cloud in the trap and the decay of the trapped atoms have been studied by pulsed electric field ionization and imaging techniques.
Pulsed supersonic beams of helium atoms in the high-field-seeking 52p52p52p Rydberg state have been guided while following helical trajectories in the electrostatic field of a charged wire suspended along the axis of a grounded cylindrical metallic tube. The operation of this electrostatic wire guide for samples in high-field-seeking Rydberg-Stark states has been investigated with dc and pulsed electric potentials applied to the wire while the guided atoms were detected by pulsed electric-field ionization. The acceptance of the guide has been determined through numerical particle trajectory simulations.
Hydrogen atoms in supersonic expansions with velocities in the range from 700to800m∕s700\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{to}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}800\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}∕\mathrm{s}700to800m∕s have been excited to Rydberg-Stark states with principal quantum number nnn between 20 and 40, decelerated to zero velocity in the lab frame using time-dependent inhomogeneous electric fields, and trapped in a two-dimensional electrostatic trap with an initial density of $\ensuremath{\approx}5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. The motion of the atomic cloud in the trap was observed by measuring the times of flight and images of the H+{\mathrm{H}}^{+}H+ ions produced by pulsed field ionization. The velocity distribution of the trapped atoms can be described by an effective temperature of 350mK350\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mK}350mK. The decay of the population of trapped atoms does not follow a single-exponential behavior and has contributions from radiative and collisional processes.
The controlled deflection of Rydberg atoms in an inhomogeneous electric field is demonstrated and shown to be in agreement with predictions based on a well-defined Stark map. Krypton atoms in a supersonic beam are excited in a two-colour multiphoton process to selected Stark states with n = 16-19 and undergo deflections in the field of an electrostatic dipole. The spatial distribution of the deflected atoms is monitored by ion imaging. The atoms travelling ~10 cm in the beam direction after excitation are deflected from the beam axis by distances of up to 3 mm, the interaction with the field taking place over 40 µs. Simulations of the trajectories agree well with the experimental results, demonstrating that the detected Rydberg atoms are those which have not undergone decay processes in the 40 µs applied field.
Hydrogen atoms in Rydberg states with principal quantum numbers between 23 and 70 have been accelerated, decelerated, and electrostatically trapped using a surface-electrode Rydberg-Stark decelerator. By applying a set of oscillating electrical potentials to a two-dimensional array of electrodes on a printed circuit board (PCB), a continuously moving, three-dimensional electric trap with a predefined velocity and acceleration is generated. From an initial longitudinal velocity of 760 m/s, final velocities of the Rydberg atoms ranging from 1200 m/s to zero velocity in the laboratory-fixed frame of reference were achieved. Accelerated or decelerated atoms were detected directly by pulsed electric-field ionization. Atoms trapped at zero mean velocity above the PCB were reaccelerated off the PCB before field ionization.
Hydrogen atoms in a cold supersonic expansion with an average velocity of 700 m s −1 have been excited to Rydberg Stark states with principal quantum number in the range n = 20–25 and subsequently decelerated and accelerated in time-independent inhomogeneous electric fields. Accelerations of up to 2 × 10 8 m s −2 have been achieved and the initial kinetic energy of atoms prepared in low (high)-field seeking Stark states could be more than quadrupled (halved) over a flight distance of only 3 mm and in a time of less than 5 µs. The control over the velocity of the Rydberg atoms is such that trapping can be envisaged.