Atoms in crossed fields: a new experimental approach
J-P Connerade, G Droungas, Natalia E. Karapanagioti +1 more
We describe a novel experiment on Rydberg atoms in crossed electric and magnetic fields, recently performed at Imperial College. The novelty resides in a combination of a crossed-field geometry with a time-gated detection technique, by which separation of the circularly polarized components is now achieved. The importance of achieving such a separation and the new opportunities it opens up are explained. By this approach, a map of the diamagnetic Stark patterns is obtained. The data exhibit interesting behaviour in that the hydrogenic and non-hydrogenic groups within the n-shell now become distinguishable. Their evolution as a function of field strength brings out the difference between linear and quadratic effects. The levels with a quadratic dependence on electric field strength eventually invade and dominate the spectrum. We surmise that the trend from order to chaos is different in crossed fields from the trend in the diamagnetic limit. We comment on further theory required to clarify this point. Our observations extend up to and slightly above the saddle-point energy.
Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•May 14, 1997•24 citations