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Physical Review A

Measurement of Rydberg positronium fluorescence lifetimes

Adam Deller, A. Alonso, B. S. Cooper, S. D. Hogan, D. B. Cassidy

Published Jun 29, 2016• 26 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report measurements of the fluorescence lifetimes of positronium (Ps) atoms with principal quantum numbers $n=10--19$. Ps atoms in Rydberg-Stark states were produced via a two-color two-step $1\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}S\ensuremath{\rightarrow}2\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}P\ensuremath{\rightarrow}n\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}S/n\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}D$ excitation scheme and subsequently detected after traveling 1.2 m. The measured time-of-flight distributions were used to determine the mean lifetimes of the Rydberg levels, yielding values ranging from $3\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$ to $26\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$. Our data are in accord with the expected radiative lifetimes of Rydberg-Stark states of Ps.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.93.062513

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We demonstrate experimentally the production of Rydberg positronium (Ps) atoms in a two-step process, comprising incoherent laser excitation, first to the 2(3)P state and then to states with principal quantum numbers ranging from 10 to 25. We find that excitation of 2(3)P atoms to Rydberg levels occurs very efficiently (~90%) and that the ~25% overall efficiency of the production of Rydberg atoms is determined almost entirely by the spectral overlap of the primary excitation laser and the Doppler broadened width of the 1 (3)S-2(3)P transition. The observed efficiency of Rydberg Ps production can be explained if stimulated emission back to the 2P states is suppressed, for example, by intermixing of the Rydberg state Stark sublevels. The efficient production of long-lived Rydberg Ps in a high magnetic field may make it possible to perform direct measurements of the gravitational free fall of Ps.
The production of long-lived Rydberg positronium (Ps) and correction for Doppler shifts in the excitation laser frequencies are crucial elements of proposed measurements of the gravitational freefall of antimatter and for precision measurements of the optical spectrum of Ps. Using a two-step optical transition via 2P2P2P levels, we have prepared Ps atoms in Rydberg states up to the term limit. The spectra are corrected for the first-order Doppler shift using measured velocities, and the Balmer transitions are resolved for $15\ensuremath{\le}n\ensuremath{\le}31$. The excitation signal amplitude begins to decrease for n>50n>50n>50, consistent with the onset of motional electric field ionization in the 3.5-mT magnetic field at the Ps formation target.
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The radiative lifetimes of the Eu 4f 7 6s n p ( 8 P J or 10 P J ) Rydberg states with J = 5/2 and 11/2 are investigated with a combination of multi-step laser excitation and pulsed electric field ionization, from which their dependence on the effective principal quantum number is observed. The lifetimes of 21 states are reported along with an evaluation of their experimental uncertainty. The influence of blackbody radiation, due to the oven temperature, on the lifetime of the higher- n states is detected. The non-hydrogen behavior of the investigated states is also observed.
We present a simple and efficient method for measuring the atomic lifetimes in order of tens of microseconds and demonstrate it in the lifetime determination of barium Rydberg states. This method extracts the lifetime information from the time-of-flight spectrum directly, which is much more efficient than other methods such as the time-delayed field ionization and the traditional laser induced fluorescence. The lifetimes determined with our method for barium Rydberg 6snp (n=37–59) series are well coincident with the values deduced from the absolute oscillator strengths of barium which were given in the literature [ J. Phys. B 14 (1981) 4489 , 29 (1996) 655 ] on experiments.