Physical Review A
Photoexcitation of n≃305 Rydberg states in the presence of an rf drive field
S. Yoshida, Carlos O Reinhold, Joachim Burgdörfer, S Ye, F. B. Dunning
Abstract
The response of highly excited potassium Rydberg states with $n$ $\ensuremath{\sim}305$ to a sinusoidal electric drive field in the radio frequency (100--300 MHz) regime is examined by photoexcitation from the $4s$ ground state using a uv probe beam. The drive field couples many Rydberg levels simultaneously and results in a coherent response that leads to a variety of multiphoton processes. The excitation spectra are analyzed within the framework of Floquet theory and reveal signatures of quantum optical phenomena such as electromagnetically induced transparency and Autler-Townes splitting seen with few-level systems.