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Physics of Plasmas

Lyman-α radiation of a probing metastable hydrogen beam to measure electric fields in diluted fluids and plasmas

F. Doveil, A. Lejeune, Laurence Chérigier-Kovacic

Published Apr 15, 2013• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The interaction between a metastable H(2s) atomic hydrogen beam and an external electric field leads to the emission of the Lyman-α line. It originates in the Stark mixing of the near-degenerate 2s1/2 and 2p1/2 levels separated by the Lamb shift. The quenched radiation proportional to the square of the electric field amplitude is recovered in vacuum by using such an atomic probe beam. For larger electric field, saturation is observed and related to the beam finite transit time. We also observe the strong enhancement of the signal when the field is oscillating at the Lamb shift frequency. This technique is applied in a plasma, offering an alternative way to measure weak electric fields by direct and non-intrusive means.

DOI
10.1063/1.4801510

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The interaction between a metastable H(2s) atomic hydrogen beam and an external electric field leads to the emission of the Lyman-α line. It originates in the Stark mixing of the near-degenerate 2s1/2 and 2p1/2 levels separated by the Lamb shift. The quenched radiation proportional to the square of the electric field amplitude is recovered in vacuum by using such an atomic probe beam. For larger electric field, saturation is observed and related to the beam finite transit time. We also observe the strong enhancement of the signal when the field is oscillating at the Lamb shift frequency. This technique is applied in a plasma, offering an alternative way to measure weak electric fields by direct and non-intrusive means.
The interaction between a metastable H(2s) atomic hydrogen beam and an external electric field leads to the emission of the Lyman-α line. It originates in the Stark mixing of the near-degenerate 2s1/2 and 2p1/2 levels separated by the Lamb shift. The quenched radiation proportional to the square of the electric field amplitude is recovered in vacuum by using such an atomic probe beam. We observe the strong enhancement of the signal when the field is oscillating at the Lamb shift frequency. This technique is applied in a plasma, offering an alternative way to measure weak electric fields by direct and non-intrusive means.
A beam source of atomic hydrogen is described which produces metastable atoms in the 2S1/2 state by optical pumping. A beam flux of 1016 atoms/s is generated in the ground state. The atoms in the beam pass in front of a lamp producing Lyman-β (1026 Å) radiation, where some of them are excited to the 3P level and cascade with a branching ratio of 12% to the 2S1/2 state. The number of metastable atoms produced is measured by quenching them with an electric field and detecting the emitted Lyman-α (1216 Å) radiation. Beams of 106 metastable atoms/s were obtained. Using the Bethe-Lamb theory for the quenching process, a metastable beam effective temperature of 100 K was measured.
The strong field-induced quantum beats observed in beam-foil studies of Ly- alpha radiation are obtained in a conventional metastable-hydrogen quenching experiment. The phase relation between the Stark shifted 2s 1/2 -2p 1/2 Lamb-shift oscillations and the much more rapid 2s 1 -2p 3/2 fine-structure oscillations depends on the detailed way in which the quenching field is switched on. Apart from a phaseshift, the results agree with a non-perturbative theoretical calculation which assumes that the field is applied suddenly. Various frequency components of the time-dependent radiation intensity are identified with specific hyperfine transitions or groups of transitions. No adjustable parameters are used for the initial state amplitudes.
The linear polarization of Lyman-\ensuremath{\alpha} radiation emitted when hydrogen atoms in the metastable 2s1/2{\mathit{s}}_{1/2}s1/2​ state traverse an external electric field is studied as a function of the effective rise time of the field for field strengths extending from very small values up to 6 keV/cm. With decreasing rise time, the measured polarization exhibits a transition from adiabatic to sudden behavior. The transition region is centered at a rise time which is approximately equal to the characteristic time associated with the 2${\mathit{s}}_{1/2\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}222{\mathit{p}}_{1/2}$ Lamb splitting in the unperturbed hydrogen system. The experimental data are well described by the results of a time-dependent theory.
We have observed second-harmonic generation in atomic hydrogen in the Lyman-α region, with and without an applied dc electric field, Ea. Experiments with a continuous atomic beam were carried out by using a pulsed dye laser tuned to 243 nm for excitation of the n = 2-1 transition. The laser beam was focused 0.4 mm below the H-source nozzle, where the H-atom density was estimated to be 5 × 1013 cm-3. Measurements of second-harmonic generation (SHG) at ~122 nm were made at various electric fields up to ~27 kV/cm. It was shown that the SH signal produced at E a = 0 occurs because of a charge-separation field of ~800 V/cm that is caused by three-photon ionization. Measurements of the SHG and ion current were found to vary as I2 L and I3 L , respectively. At high fields (E a > 10 kV/cm) the SH signal at the center of the Stark-split components decreased somewhat from the peak value, but the ion current (corresponding to photon absorption) approached zero. This observation is a clear demonstration of a similar effect, predicted by Harris et al.1 of efficient nonlinear conversion with induced transparency, and it suggests the possibility of obtaining intense Lyman-a radiation.