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Physical Review A

Suppression of two-photon ionization via Rydberg states

Antoni Wójcik, R. Parzyński

Published Apr 1, 1995• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Within a fully analytically solvable model, we discuss the mechanisms of strong-field suppression of ionization from the initial s state via a family of p Rydberg states to s and d continua. Both Raman coupling via a continuum between different p Rydberg states and Raman migration of population via d continuum from p to higher angular momentum f Rydberg states are considered. The results are compared with those obtained neglecting Raman couplings via the continuum between Rydberg states of the same and different angular momenta. A profound effect of Raman couplings on ionization is demonstrated.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.51.3154

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Within a fully analytically solvable model, we discuss the mechanisms of strong-field suppression of ionization from the initial s state via a family of p Rydberg states to s and d continua. Both Raman coupling via a continuum between different p Rydberg states and Raman migration of population via d continuum from p to higher angular momentum f Rydberg states are considered. The results are compared with those obtained neglecting Raman couplings via the continuum between Rydberg states of the same and different angular momenta. A profound effect of Raman couplings on ionization is demonstrated.
An analytical study is presented of two models of intense-laser ionization from an isolated initial state via a band of high-Rydberg states in a system which bears many features of the hydrogen atom. The models differ in the way the population from the directly excited Rydberg states can migrate to the states of higher angular momenta. In one of them it migrates via nonresonant and in the other via resonant degenerate Raman coupling. Within these models we draw conclusions about the efficiency of migration, the initial-state lifetime, the redistribution of population, the laser intensities stabilizing the atom against ionization, the effect of the initial state on the threshold stabilizing intensity, as well as about stabilizing mechanisms versus the initial-state choice.
We present non-perturbative ab initio calculations of resonant two-photon ionization in which the ground state of a complex atom is resonantly coupled by a laser field to two Rydberg states, each of which belongs to a different Rydberg series. As an example, we have studied the resonant two-photon ionization of neon via the 5s and 4d Rydberg states using the R-matrix-Floquet theory. We find that for weak fields, where the Rydberg states are not overlapping, interference effects are already present which lead to a suppression of ionization for a particular laser frequency. For strong fields, the field induced coupling between the two Rydberg states can strongly modify the weak-field behaviour. We give a qualitative explanation of these phenomena by considering the dressed states of a simple three-level model atom coupled to two continua. Finally we show, by varying the intensity, how the Floquet eigenstates corresponding to the ground state and the two Rydberg states of neon are adiabatically connected to the field-free states. © 1995 IOP Publishing Ltd.
We analyze the excitation of atoms by intense pulsed laser fields and describe a mechanism leading to effective dynamical stabilization at a photon energy below the unperturbed binding energy. At low and intermediate intensities, the atom is left in a coherent superposition of the initial state and a set of Rydberg states which is stable against ionization; this effect subsists for pulse durations presently accessible to experiment. At higher intensities, population is transferred through degenerate Raman coupling to Rydberg states of higher angular momentum.
It is shown that the rate and degree of ionization of an atom can be controlled by preparing a specific superposition of Rydberg states. This effect is due to the Raman interaction of Rydberg levels via resonant lower-lying levels of the atom. Depending on the initial population of an atom interacting with a strong laser field, the atom either ionizes completely or exhibits an extremely high degree of stability (in this case the probability of the atom remaining in a bound state when the laser pulse is switched off is close to 1). It is shown that states which are stable against ionization decay or, conversely, decay rapidly into the continuum can be prepared using double laser pulses with a controllable time delay.
We have observed suppression of ionization in Rydberg atoms irradiated by an intense short-pulse laser field. We find that single-photon ionization of the outer electron in a Ba 6snk Stark state can be severely suppressed relative to high-order (\ensuremath{\ge}3 photon) nonresonant multiphoton ionization of the tightly bound 6s core electron. This population trapping occurs in intense short laser pulses, where the bandwidth of the ionizing laser is greater than the spacings between adjacent Stark states, and may be due to a substantial modification of the initial Stark state via stimulated Raman processes through the continuum. The Ba+∗{\mathrm{Ba}}^{+\mathrm{*}}Ba+∗ ion should be left in a higly excited superposition state, or wave packet.