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Journal of Physics B Atomic and Molecular Physics

Excitation of high angular momentum Rydberg states

William A. Molander, Carlos R. Stroud, John A. Yeazell

Published Jun 28, 1986• 34 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The authors describe and analyse an RF-optical technique for exciting alkali atoms in an atomic beam to a specific high angular momentum Rydberg state. In the procedure the Rydberg states are dressed by an RF field and two optical photons are used to excite the dressed state that goes adiabatically into the desired Rydberg state as the RF field is turned off. They describe in detail the excitation of the aligned-circular-orbit states. The states have the maximum angular momentum quantum numbers for a given principal quantum number, and thus are the most nearly classical of all eigenstates. It is shown that in excess of 90% of the excited state population can be put into the aligned-circular-orbit state.

DOI
10.1088/0022-3700/19/12/003

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The authors describe and analyse an RF-optical technique for exciting alkali atoms in an atomic beam to a specific high angular momentum Rydberg state. In the procedure the Rydberg states are dressed by an RF field and two optical photons are used to excite the dressed state that goes adiabatically into the desired Rydberg state as the RF field is turned off. They describe in detail the excitation of the aligned-circular-orbit states. The states have the maximum angular momentum quantum numbers for a given principal quantum number, and thus are the most nearly classical of all eigenstates. It is shown that in excess of 90% of the excited state population can be put into the aligned-circular-orbit state.
The authors propose to prepare oriented circular Rydberg states in atoms (i.e. states where one valence electron has spherical quantum numbers: m=l=n-1>>1) by combining the specific advantages of the adiabatic crossed-field method, recently tested in alkali and alkaline earth atoms, and of the adiabatic RF field method whose principle was described in 1986. The formal equivalence of the two methods is pointed out. Their association is made possible by considering the dynamical symmetry of the Coulomb potential. In order to illustrate the new process, calculations have been performed for the manifold n=5 of hydrogen.
Rydberg atoms are usually produced with large principal quantum numbers, n>10, but with low orbital angular momentum quantum numbers, l<or=3. In this paper the authors show how a careful arrangement of weak electric fields can produce states of large orbital angular momentum, l approximately=n. Specifically, they show how a field which is switched on adiabatically, suddenly rotated through 90 degrees and then suddenly switched off after a specified time interval can produce large l states. The conditions to be satisfied by the field are defined and the effects of other field configurations are discussed. The analysis is based upon a classical model; where possible the significance of quantal effects is assessed.
The population of a beam of lithium atoms has been transferred from a low angular momentum Rydberg state to a state with $|m|=n\ensuremath{-}1$, with nearly 100% efficiency. Selective field ionization is employed to detect the high ∣m∣|m|∣m∣ state. Transfer occurs by a series of adiabatic rapid passages; it can also occur by a single multiphoton process.
Circular atoms, i.e., Rydberg atoms with maximum angular momentum, are semiclassical atoms of great interest for Rydberg constant metrology and QED tests. Following a suggestion by Delande and Gay, we have prepared circular atoms by a new method, involving the adiabatic switching of crossed electric and magnetic fields. The method, which is demonstrated for Rydberg states of lithium (principal quantum number n=20to25n=20 \mathrm{to} 25n=20to25, is applicable over a wide variety of experiment conditions.
Abstract We consider the excitation of Rydberg states through photons carrying an intrinsic orbital angular momentum degree of freedom. Laguerre–Gauss modes, with a helical wave-front structure, correspond to such a set of laser beams, which carry units of orbital angular momentum in their propagation direction, with ℓ 0 the winding number. We demonstrate that, in a proper geometry setting, this orbital angular momentum can be transferred to the internal degrees of freedom of the atoms, thus violating the standard dipole selection rules. Higher orbital angular momentum states become accessible through a single photon excitation process. We investigate how the spacial structure of the Laguerre–Gauss beam affects the radial coupling strength, assuming the simplest case of hydrogen-like wavefunctions. Finally we discuss a generalization of the angular momentum coupling, in order to include the effects of the fine and hyperfine splitting, in the context of the Wigner–Eckart theorem.