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Physical Review Letters

Half-Cycle Microwave Excitation of Rubidium Rydberg Atoms

G. M. Lankhuijzen, Lambertus D. Noordam

Published Jan 16, 1995• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Excitation from $\mathrm{ns}$, $\mathrm{np}$, and $\mathrm{nd}$ Rydberg states of rubidium to the adjacent manifolds by electrical pulses of 140 and 9 ns duration up to 200 V/cm is studied. These pulses correspond to half cycles of microwave fields of 2.6 GHz and 40 MHz. The observed population transfer (up to 40%) is not monotonically increasing with the field strength. For the 140 ps pulse local minima are found due to the absence of avoided crossings of appropriate size at the peak of the pulse. For the long pulses Stueckelberg oscillations are observed in the transfer yield.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.74.355

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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.

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Rubidium Rydberg atoms in strong fields

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In this chapter experiments on rubidium Rydberg atoms in external fields are reviewed [1 – 8]. In the first part results on the interaction of microwave radiation with rubidium Rydberg atoms are described. The Rydberg atoms interact with a microwave pulse of a well-defined duration. When applying coherent microwave radiation with a frequency exceeding a certain value, the experimentally observed microwave field strength at which 10% of the atoms are ionized has to be much larger than the value found by classical trajectory calculations. The atoms are stabilized by the dynamical localization. An extremely weak microwave broadband noise which is added to the coherent wave at least partially destroys the localization. This phenomenon depends on the bandwidth of the added noise. In further experiments the dependence of the 10% ionization microwave field strength on the duration τ of the microwave pulse has been investigated. For increasing noise level the 10% ionization field strength ∈ 0.1 develops from a behavior ∈ 0.1 ∼ τ −1/4 to a ∈ 0.1 ∼ τ −1/2 dependence, which is characteristic for a classical diffusion process. The second part of the chapter deals with experiments in strong static crossed electric and magnetic fields. Below as well as above the ionization energy the observed quasi-Landau(QL)-resonances are explained using classical trajectories. The ionization behavior of the QL-resonances is clearly influenced by the spatial structure of the associated classical orbits. In further experiments the dependence of the observed ionization energy on the magnetic field was investigated in the presence of a fixed static electric field.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Apr 27, 1995•0 citations

Quantum interference in half-cycle microwave multiphoton transitions

C. W. S. Conover, Julia H. Rentz

We observe microwave multiphoton transitions in Rydberg states of Na using intense subnanosecond half-cycle electric field pulses in a microwave transmission line. Transition probabilities from ns and nd states, ranging in principal quantum number from 18 to 40, to nearby nl (l\ensuremath{\geqslant}2) states are measured both as a function of pulse amplitude and the delay between two identical temporally spaced pulses. The transition rate depends strongly on both the pulse amplitude and the temporal delay between the two pulses. Nearly 100% of the population can be transferred for certain amplitudes of the half-cycle pulse. Transition probabilities are successfully described both with a dynamic Stark model and direct numerical integration of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. Ramsey interference between two delayed pulses is observed that shows strong-field behavior. The two-pulse experiment is a technique for high-order multiphoton spectroscopy without concern for ac Stark shifts.

Physical Review A•May 1, 1997•7 citations
Excitation from ns\mathrm{ns}ns, np\mathrm{np}np, and nd\mathrm{nd}nd Rydberg states of rubidium to the adjacent manifolds by electrical pulses of 140 and 9 ns duration up to 200 V/cm is studied. These pulses correspond to half cycles of microwave fields of 2.6 GHz and 40 MHz. The observed population transfer (up to 40%) is not monotonically increasing with the field strength. For the 140 ps pulse local minima are found due to the absence of avoided crossings of appropriate size at the peak of the pulse. For the long pulses Stueckelberg oscillations are observed in the transfer yield.
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.
We have measured the microwave ionization threshold electric fields for ns-state Na Rydberg atoms from n=24--33 as a function of the duration of the ionizing microwave pulse. Pulses as short as 2.8 ns were used, containing fewer than 25 cycles of 8.55-GHz radiation. While the fields required to produce the onset of ionization were independent of pulse duration and exhibited the ${\mathit{n}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}5}$ scaling characteristic of ionization by diffusion through higher-energy states, the fields required to produce nearly complete ionization increased dramatically as the pulse was shortened. Additional measurements of the populations of bound states after the shortest microwave pulses showed that up to \ensuremath{\sim}10% of the atoms were excited to states above the initially populated ns state and the adjacent (n-1) manifold of higher angular momentum states, while most either ionized or remained in these states. From this observation we conclude that the rate-limiting process for ionization is the transition from the initially populated ns states or the adjacent manifold to the next higher manifold, not the diffusion through higher-lying states.
In this chapter experiments on rubidium Rydberg atoms in external fields are reviewed [1 – 8]. In the first part results on the interaction of microwave radiation with rubidium Rydberg atoms are described. The Rydberg atoms interact with a microwave pulse of a well-defined duration. When applying coherent microwave radiation with a frequency exceeding a certain value, the experimentally observed microwave field strength at which 10% of the atoms are ionized has to be much larger than the value found by classical trajectory calculations. The atoms are stabilized by the dynamical localization. An extremely weak microwave broadband noise which is added to the coherent wave at least partially destroys the localization. This phenomenon depends on the bandwidth of the added noise. In further experiments the dependence of the 10% ionization microwave field strength on the duration τ of the microwave pulse has been investigated. For increasing noise level the 10% ionization field strength ∈ 0.1 develops from a behavior ∈ 0.1 ∼ τ −1/4 to a ∈ 0.1 ∼ τ −1/2 dependence, which is characteristic for a classical diffusion process. The second part of the chapter deals with experiments in strong static crossed electric and magnetic fields. Below as well as above the ionization energy the observed quasi-Landau(QL)-resonances are explained using classical trajectories. The ionization behavior of the QL-resonances is clearly influenced by the spatial structure of the associated classical orbits. In further experiments the dependence of the observed ionization energy on the magnetic field was investigated in the presence of a fixed static electric field.
We observe microwave multiphoton transitions in Rydberg states of Na using intense subnanosecond half-cycle electric field pulses in a microwave transmission line. Transition probabilities from ns and nd states, ranging in principal quantum number from 18 to 40, to nearby nl (l\ensuremath{\geqslant}2) states are measured both as a function of pulse amplitude and the delay between two identical temporally spaced pulses. The transition rate depends strongly on both the pulse amplitude and the temporal delay between the two pulses. Nearly 100% of the population can be transferred for certain amplitudes of the half-cycle pulse. Transition probabilities are successfully described both with a dynamic Stark model and direct numerical integration of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. Ramsey interference between two delayed pulses is observed that shows strong-field behavior. The two-pulse experiment is a technique for high-order multiphoton spectroscopy without concern for ac Stark shifts.