Quantum beats in the electric-field quenching of metastable hydrogen
Adriaan J. van Wijngaarden, Ee-Hua. Goh, G. W. F. Drake +1 more
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.
Journal of Physics B Atomic and Molecular Physics•Aug 21, 1976•15 citations