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Physical Review A

Measurements of lifetimes of sodium Rydberg states in a cooled environment

William P. Spencer, A. Ganesh Vaidyanathan, Daniel Kleppner, Theodore W. Ducas

Published Nov 1, 1981• 43 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have measured lifetimes of sodium $s$ and $d$ levels in the range $17<n<28$. Lifetime shortening due to blackbody radiation has been effectively eliminated by carrying out the measurements in a thermally isolated container cooled to 30 K. The individual lifetimes have been determined to 5% and agree well with calculations based on the Coulombic approximation. The validity of the calculation has been further tested using non-Coulombic methods. An ${({n}^{*})}^{3}$ scaling law has been obtained from the lifetimes and is accurate to 2.4%.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.24.2513

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We have measured lifetimes of sodium sss and ddd levels in the range 17<n<2817<n<2817<n<28. Lifetime shortening due to blackbody radiation has been effectively eliminated by carrying out the measurements in a thermally isolated container cooled to 30 K. The individual lifetimes have been determined to 5% and agree well with calculations based on the Coulombic approximation. The validity of the calculation has been further tested using non-Coulombic methods. An (n∗)3{({n}^{*})}^{3}(n∗)3 scaling law has been obtained from the lifetimes and is accurate to 2.4%.
Collisional and thermal ionization of sodium n S and n D Rydberg atoms with n = 8–20 has been studied. The experiments were performed using a two-step pulsed laser excitation in an effusive atomic beam at atom density of about 2 × 10 10 cm −3 . Molecular and atomic ions from associative, Penning and thermal ionization processes were detected. It was found that the atomic ions were created mainly due to photoionization of Rydberg atoms by photons of blackbody radiation at the ambient temperature of 300 K. Blackbody ionization rates and effective lifetimes of Rydberg states of interest were determined. The molecular ions were found to be from associative ionization in Na( nL ) + Na(3S) collisions. Rate constants of associative ionization have been measured using an original method based on relative measurements of Na + 2 and Na + ion signals.
We have determined the radiative lifetimes of the $n=5\ensuremath{-}13$, sss and ddd states of Na by pumping the desired level with two resonant photons derived from two dye lasers excited by the same N2{\mathrm{N}}_{2}N2​ laser. The lifetimes increase approximately as the cube of the effective quantum number, and are in good agreement with a Coulomb-approximation calculation.
The lifetimes of nS1/2 and nD5/2 (n = 60–83) cesium Rydberg states are measured accurately in a magneto-optical trap using the field ionization technique and analyzed with the existing theoretical model. The room temperature blackbody radiation (BBR) and interaction between Rydberg atoms can enhance the decay rate and reduce the spontaneous lifetime of the given Rydberg atom. The measured lifetime shows a good agreement with the calculation accounting a room temperature BBR at low enough Rydberg atomic density. The dependence of measured lifetime on atomic density shows that the collision and interaction between Rydberg atoms have a large effect on the lifetime at higher Rydberg atomic density. The scaling laws of n2.55±0.02 for nD5/2 state and n2.30±0.01 for nS1/2 state within n = 60–83 range are obtained and agreement with the model calculation with a relative deviation less than 3%.
An apparatus has been developed which is capable of measuring radiative lifetimes for energy levels that can be reached in absorption. At present, lifetimes in the range 15 nsec to 5 μsec can be measured, but the range can be extended in both directions. The lifetime of the 7p P232 state of cesium is measured to be 111±6 nsec, in moderately good agreement with one previous determination and with a Bates–Damgaard calculation. The lifetime of the 3p2P states of sodium is measured to be 16.1 ± 1 nsec, in excellent agreement with other measurements.
We have developed an all-optical method for measuring the lifetimes of nSnSnS and nDnDnD Rydberg states and demonstrate its capabilities with measurements on a dilute cloud of ultracold 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms in a cryogenic environment. The method is based on the time-resolved observation of resonant light absorption by ground-state atoms and selective transfer of Rydberg atoms into the ground state at varying delay times in order to reconstruct Rydberg decay curves. Our measurements of the 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb 30S1/230{S}_{1/2}30S1/2​ state indicate an increase of the lifetime at lowered environment temperatures, as expected due to decreased blackbody radiation. For the 38D5/238{D}_{5/2}38D5/2​ state with an attractive dipole-dipole interaction, ionization and lifetime reduction due to collisional effects are observed.