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Physical Review A

Distortion of atomic states by time-dependent electric fields. II. Coupling to the continuum

Predrag Krstić, Yukap Hahn

Published Dec 1, 1994• 48 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The previously derived approximation for an atom in time-dependent electric fields [P. Krsti\ifmmode \acute{c}\else \'{c}\fi{} and Y. Hahn, Phys. Rev. A 48, 4515 (1993)] is improved for electric pulses of both short and long duration. The transitions that involve a distorted continuum are studied in detail, and the phenomenon of momentum coherence is shown to greatly enhance the transition amplitudes. A detailed comparison with the recent experiment of Jones, You, and Bucksbaum [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1236 (1993)] is presented, where a half-cycle high-power laser pulse was used to ionize Rydberg atoms.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.50.4629

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The previously derived approximation for an atom in time-dependent electric fields [P. Krsti\ifmmode \acute{c}\else '{c}\fi{} and Y. Hahn, Phys. Rev. A 48, 4515 (1993)] is improved for electric pulses of both short and long duration. The transitions that involve a distorted continuum are studied in detail, and the phenomenon of momentum coherence is shown to greatly enhance the transition amplitudes. A detailed comparison with the recent experiment of Jones, You, and Bucksbaum [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1236 (1993)] is presented, where a half-cycle high-power laser pulse was used to ionize Rydberg atoms.
Ionization of Rydberg atoms by short, half-cycle electrical pulses is investigated experimentally in the intermediate-pulse duration regime where the ionization threshold fields are determined both by the slew rate of the ionizing pulse and its duration. Electrical pulses with durations ranging from 140 ps to 9 ns and amplitudes up to are applied to rubidium and lithium atoms prepared in high Rydberg states by laser excitation (n ranges from 42 to 82). The amplitude of the 140 ps pulse required for ionization of the Rb and Li Rydberg population is found to be a factor of two higher than the expected amplitude based on diabatic field ionization and recent theoretical calculations by Reinhold et al (1993 26 L659). Using the longer pulses we studied the transition from the diabatic/adabatic ionization towards ionization in the impulse-kick regime.
In an experiment performed by our collaborators at Bryn Mawr, we excite rubidium-85 to a coherent superposition of the different |mj| splittings of the 37d5/2 state induced by a small electric field. After waiting for some variable delay time, we apply a time-dependent electric field to ionize the atom and record the ionized current that arrives at the detector. Due to the initial superposition, we observe an interference pattern that depends on the delay time. This thesis describes my continued work with Dr. Carroll to develop a computational model of this experiment. Our initial method of determining the current involved a semi-classical approach that did not accurately describe the phase, so the more recent developments have focused on including the continuum states in our calculation.
A class of approximate solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation for an atom in a time-dependent electric field that scales with the applied field F as FF(t)dt is derived and their bounds of validity are carefully examined. The class covers a wide region of applicable electric fields and its time constants. An extensive comparison of these solutions with the results of numerical calculations on a truncated basis of up to 465 hydrogenic states shows surprising agreement. One of these solutions is found to be very effective in field dressing of high Rydberg states. The resulting field dressing is proposed for the description of the plasma field effects on atomic reaction rates, but its range of applicability can be extended to the other atomic problems that involve time-dependent electric fields.
We have ionized Rydberg atoms using subpicosecond half-cycle electromagnetic pulses. The threshold electric field required to ionize a Rydberg state with effective quantum number n∗{\mathit{n}}^{\mathrm{*}}n∗ is found to scale as ${\mathit{n}}^{\mathrm{*}\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}2}$ for states with n∗{\mathit{n}}^{\mathrm{*}}n∗>13 in contradistinction to the ${\mathit{n}}^{\mathrm{*}\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}4}$ threshold scaling for static field ionization and high order multiphoton ionization. This novel result is explained using a classical model.
We study the ionization of Rydberg atoms by half-cycle electromagnetic pulses as a function of the duration of the pulses covering a broad range of time intervals connecting the adiabatic and sudden regimes. The threshold fields for ionization lie on a universal classical scaling invariant curve. We present quantum mechanical results which agree well with the universal curve. The n -2 threshold field scaling found experimentally is a linear approximation to the universal curve by the tangent in the region where the pulse duration is of the order of the orbital period of the atom. We predict the existence of an ultrashort pulse limit in which the threshold field scales as n -1 . Effects due to the non-hydrogenic core are negligible.