Turning off Decay: Population Trapping in Bound-Continuum Excitation

Takashi Nakajima, P. Lambropoulos

Piers Coleman, P. L. Knight

R J Kuklinski, Kazimierz Rza̧żewski

A simple analysis of the bound-free system shows that for a narrow continuum the Fermi golden rule can be generalised for the high-intensity regime. This generalisation has the form of a simple expression for the decay rate and helps to explain nearly perfect population trapping in the case of a narrowly peaked matrix element. Such population trapping means that the decay rate of a bound state strongly coupled to a continuum tends to zero for increasing coupling strength only if the matrix element falls off faster than the Lorentzian. The authors also find new solutions for pulsed excitation giving exact population trapping in the bound-free transition.

Stanley L. Haan, P. A. Polstra, W. H. Schotanus +1 more

Near-threshold single-photon photodetachment processes are considered for simple model systems representing negative ions exposed to monochromatic radiation. The model systems considered feature an initial discrete state, the photoelectron continuum, and in some cases an excited or autodetaching discrete state. Population trapping through the formation of a bound dressed state and the photoelectron spectra are examined. Two photoelectron spectra are defined : a primary spectrum which results from decay while the laser interaction is on and a secondary spectrum which results from the destabilization of the bound dressed state if the interaction is turned off again. Careful attention is given to the passage of the poles of the Green's operator through the low-energy boundary of a continuum, and it is concluded that such poles move nonmonotonically through the boundary of an s-wave continuum, but monotonically through the boundary of a p-wave or higher-l-wave continuum. Two example systems, one featuring a single discrete state and an s-wave continuum and one featuring two discrete states and a p-wave continuum, are considered in detail.

Harm Geert Muller, M. P. de Boer

A. S. Agabekyan