Engineering atomic Rydberg states with pulsed electric fields

Abstract

Atoms in high-lying Rydberg states with large values of the principal quantum number n, n ⩾ 300, form a valuable laboratory in which to explore the control and manipulation of quantum states of mesoscopic size using carefully tailored sequences of short electric field pulses whose characteristic times (duration and/or rise/fall times) are less than the classical electron orbital period. Atoms react to such pulse sequences very differently than to short laser or microwave pulses providing the foundation for a number of new approaches to engineering atomic wavefunctions. The remarkable level of control that can be achieved is illustrated with reference to the generation of localized wavepackets in Bohr-like near-circular orbits, and the production of non-dispersive wavepackets under periodic driving and their transport to targeted regions of phase space. The testing of these control schemes, together with their reversibility, through the creation of electric dipole echoes in Stark wavepackets, is also described. New protocols continue to be developed that will allow even tighter control with the promise of new insights into quantum-classical correspondence, information storage in mesoscopic systems, physics in the ultra-fast ultra-intense regime and nonlinear dynamics in driven systems.

Characterizing high-nquasi-one-dimensional strontium Rydberg atoms

“…The strontium atom beam is provided by an oven that can, with appropriate collimation, provide a beam with a full width at half maximum divergence of ∼4 mrad at densities approaching 10 9 cm −3 . As described elsewhere, residual stray fields in the experimental volume are reduced to 50 μV cm −1 by application of small offset potentials to the electrodes that surround it [1].…”

“…For singleelectron systems, such as the alkali atoms, classical simulations have proven to be a powerful tool when analyzing the dynamics of highly excited Rydberg atoms [1] that approach the semiclassical limit. For TAE systems, on the other hand, the classical description can easily fail.…”

“…As demonstrated in earlier studies using n ∼ 300 potassium Rydberg atoms, the production of strongly polarized quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) Rydberg states provides a valuable gateway to studies of nonlinear dynamics and chaos in the ultrafast, ultraintense regime [1][2][3] and to the control and manipulation of excited electronic states, including the creation of states in which the electron moves about the nucleus in a near-circular "Bohr-like" orbit [4][5][6]. Notwithstanding the wealth of new insights obtained using alkali metals, the alkaline-earth elements offer the opportunity to explore new aspects of Rydberg atom physics [7][8][9].…”

“…The second valence electron also admits the possibility of creating quasistable two-electron-excited states with the planetary atom [11] or frozen planet configurations [12,13]. To fully exploit these opportunities, however, requires the creation of quasi-1D strontium Rydberg atoms and the application of techniques developed previously to engineer their properties using one or more pulsed electric fields [1,5].…”

Attosecond chronoscopy of photoemission

“…Previously, time-resolved electronic dynamics was accessible only for high-lying excited states. In such Rydberg states with quantum numbers ≫ 1, the intrinsic time scale given by the period of a Bohr orbit = 150 as × 3 reaches picoseconds (for ≈ 30) or even nanoseconds (for ≈ 300) and can be conveniently interrogated by microwave pulses (Gallagher, 2005) or electric pulses from arbitrary-form pulse generators (Dunning et al, 2009). Only with the advent of attosecond pulses, time-resolved dynamics near the ground state ( ≃ 1) and deep into the quantum regime came into reach.…”