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Physical Review A

State-selective Rydberg excitation with femtosecond pulses

Martin Kozák, Jana Preclíková, Daniel E. Fregenal, J. P. Hansen

Published Apr 22, 2013• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show that multipulse excitation of Rydberg atoms with a sequence of short time-delayed femtosecond pulses results in strong $n$ selection of the final-state amplitudes. In the experiment, a 150 fs laser pulse, which alone populates $n$ levels from 22--32 in Li, is chopped into four time-delayed excitation pulses, which results in a strong modification of the $n$-level distribution. The mechanism demonstrated in the experiment is derived theoretically: With more pulses, it is shown that the population of a single or a few $n$ levels can be performed on demand and varied as long as the central laser frequency is given.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.87.043421

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We show that multipulse excitation of Rydberg atoms with a sequence of short time-delayed femtosecond pulses results in strong nnn selection of the final-state amplitudes. In the experiment, a 150 fs laser pulse, which alone populates nnn levels from 22--32 in Li, is chopped into four time-delayed excitation pulses, which results in a strong modification of the nnn-level distribution. The mechanism demonstrated in the experiment is derived theoretically: With more pulses, it is shown that the population of a single or a few nnn levels can be performed on demand and varied as long as the central laser frequency is given.
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