Circular and Elliptical States of Rydberg Atoms

Randall G. Hulet

David Alexander Anderson, Andrew Schwarzkopf, Georg A. Raithel

Andira Ramos, Kaitlin Moore, Georg A. Raithel

Thomas Ehrenreich

J. C. Day, Thomas Ehrenreich, Søren B. Hansen +3 more

Oriented elliptic Rydberg atoms have been formed in a thermal beam of Li atoms by the adiabatic crossed-field method. All coherent elliptic quantum states from linear to circular can be produced by this method. The orientation and eccentricity is controlled by the external fields. While the formation of circular states by the crossed-field method has already been established experimentally, the radiative decay of the Rydberg atoms formed here was measured and compared with theory to verify that highly eccentric elliptic quantum states may also be formed.

Jennifer A. Griffiths, David Farrelly

A classical study of the dynamics of atomic Rydberg states interacting with both elliptically and circularly polarized microwave fields is presented. In recent experiments, enhanced ionization rates were observed in elliptically as opposed to circularly polarized fields. A classical phase-space simulation provides good qualitative agreement with experimental findings. These results are explained in terms of the breakdown of almost conserved quantities as the polarization of the field is changed from circular to elliptical.