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Quantum Electronics

Long-lived positronium atom in the field of an optical laser

O. N. Gadomskiĭ, T. T. Idiatullov

Published Jun 30, 1998• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The problem of the interaction of a positronium atom with the field of optical and annihilation photons is considered. The solution obtained for the occupation numbers is used to study kinetics of the annihilation decay of a para-positronium atom from two (for example, 1 S and 2 P ) states participating in stimulated optical transitions excited by a laser. It is shown that a nonexponential time dependence of the occupation numbers is observed under the conditions of a nonlinear coherent interaction of a positronium atom with the field of optical and annihilation photons, and that in some cases there is a possibility of appearance of a long-lived state of a positronium atom with a lifetime hundreds of times longer than the lifetime of a positronium atom in the 1 S state.

DOI
10.1070/qe1998v028n06abeh001251

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The problem of the interaction of a positronium atom with the field of optical and annihilation photons is considered. The solution obtained for the occupation numbers is used to study kinetics of the annihilation decay of a para-positronium atom from two (for example, 1 S and 2 P ) states participating in stimulated optical transitions excited by a laser. It is shown that a nonexponential time dependence of the occupation numbers is observed under the conditions of a nonlinear coherent interaction of a positronium atom with the field of optical and annihilation photons, and that in some cases there is a possibility of appearance of a long-lived state of a positronium atom with a lifetime hundreds of times longer than the lifetime of a positronium atom in the 1 S state.
The problem of the interaction of a positronium atom with the field of optical and annihilation photons is considered. The solution obtained for the occupation numbers is used to study kinetics of the annihilation decay of para-positronium atom from two states participating in stimulated optical transitions excited by a laser. It is shown that a non- exponential time dependence of the occupation numbers is observed under the conditions of a nonlinear coherent interaction of a positronium atom with the field of optical and annihilation photons, and in some cases there is a possibility of appearance of a long-lived state of a positronium atom with a lifetime hundreds of times longer than the lifetime of a positronium atom in the 1S state.
We show that the annihilation dynamics of excited positronium (Ps) atoms can be controlled using parallel electric and magnetic fields. To achieve this, Ps atoms were optically excited to n=2 sublevels in fields that were adjusted to control the amount of short-lived and long-lived character of the resulting mixed states. Inclusion of the former offers a practical approach to detection via annihilation radiation, whereas the increased lifetimes due to the latter can be exploited to optimize resonance-enhanced two-photon excitation processes (e.g., 1^{3}S→2^{3}P→nS/nD), either by minimizing losses through intermediate state decay, or by making it possible to separate the excitation laser pulses in time. In addition, photoexcitation of mixed states with a 2^{3}S_{1} component represents an efficient route to producing long-lived pure 2^{3}S_{1} atoms via single-photon excitation.
A method is proposed to manipulate the annihilation dynamics of a dense gas of positronium atoms employing superradiance and subradiance regimes of the cooperative spontaneous emission of the system. The annihilation dynamics is controlled by the gas density and by the intensity of the driving strong resonant laser field. In particular, the method allows to increase the annihilation lifetime of an ensemble of positronium atoms more than hundred times by trapping the atoms in the excited state via collective radiative effects in the resonant laser and cavity fields.
A method is investigated to manipulate the annihilation dynamics of a dense gas of positronium atoms employing superradiance and subradiance regimes of the cooperative spontaneous emission of the system. The corresponding annihilation dynamics is explored in two setups with regard to its fundamental novel properties and controlled by the gas density and by the intensity of a driving strong resonant laser field. In particular, the method allows us to increase the annihilation lifetime of an ensemble of positronium atoms by trapping the atoms in the excited state via collective radiative effects in the resonant laser field. In the second setup, the effect is enhanced by employing a cavity field. The maximum lifetime increase is by a factor of about 200 for para-positronium and by a factor of about 100 for ortho-positronium.
The 33P state of positronium is an intermediate level suitable for producing long-lived positronium states. On one hand, it can be used in a two-step laser excitation scheme from the ground state to Rydberg levels. On the other hand, excitation of positronium to 33P level is a simple pathway for producing metastable 23S positronium atoms by spontaneous radiactive decay. In this work, experiments showing the production of such long-lived levels, using the 33P state as intermediate state, are presented. The characteristics of the two long-lived levels, in view of experiments of deflectometry/interferometry with positronium, are discussed.
We report a measurement of the annihilation decay rate of positronium (Ps) atoms, . Ground state atoms optically excited to radiatively metastable states were quenched via Stark mixing by the application of a time-delayed electric field. Rapid radiative decay of the Stark mixed states to the ground state, followed by self-annihilation, was observed via the annihilation radiation time spectrum, and used to determine the number of excited state atoms remaining at different times, and hence the decay rate. We obtain , in broad agreement with the Zeeman-shifted theoretical value of .