Motional Quantum States of Surface Electrons on Liquid Helium in a Tilted Magnetic Field

Abstract

The Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM), one of the paradigms of quantum electrodynamics, was introduced to describe interaction between light and a fictitious two-level atom. Recently it was suggested that the JCM Hamiltonian can be invoked to describe the motional states of electrons trapped on the surface of liquid helium and subjected to a constant uniform magnetic field tilted with respect to the surface [Yunusova et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 176802 (2019)]. In this case, the surface-bound (Rydberg) states of an electron are coupled to the electron cyclotron motion by the in-plane component of tilted field. Here we investigate, both theoretically and experimentally, the spectroscopic properties of surface electrons in a tilted magnetic field and demonstrate that such a system exhibits a variety of phenomena common to the light dressed states of atomic and molecular systems. This shows that electrons on helium realize a prototypical atomic system where interaction between components can be engineered and controlled by simple means and with high accuracy, and which therefore can be potentially used as a new flexible platform for quantum experiments. Our work introduces a pure condensedmatter system of electrons on helium into the context of atomic, molecular and optical physics.