Transitions between highly excited states of alkali atoms
The general problem of induced transitions between Rydberg states of alkali atoms due to electric fields is studied. When the fields which induce the transitions are generated by similarly excited atoms superfluorescence results. A general equation of motion for the atomic transition operators in multilevel superfluorescence is derived using the Markov approximation. When a small sample approximation is made, expectation values of this equation reduce to a simple intuitively appealing set of non-linear rate equations for the populations of the levels. Numerical solutions of these equations are presented for several interesting special cases. Several new phenomena are predicted including alteration of branching ratios, coherent trapping of population in an excited state, and relaxation oscillations in the decay. It is found that the non-linear decay tends to direct the population down a single decay route. Transitions between Rydberg states due to externally applied fields are also studied. Specifically the use of external fields to excite Rydberg atoms from states of low angular momentum to circular-orbit states is examined. The methods of Stark switching and microwave multiphoton resonance are found to be unable to excite circular-orbit states when the principle quantum number is greater than 15. A new method is proposed which overcomes this limitation. The method, which is simple to implement, is similar to Stark switching. The difference is that a microwave field rather than a d.c. field is used to split and mix the angular-momentum states.
- Research Organization:
- Rochester Univ., NY (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5014290
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ALKALI METALS
RYDBERG STATES
ATOMS
BRANCHING RATIO
CLASSICAL MECHANICS
DECAY
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EXCITATION
FLUORESCENCE
HYDROGEN
MARKOV PROCESS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
QUANTUM MECHANICS
QUANTUM NUMBERS
UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
ENERGY LEVELS
EXCITED STATES
LUMINESCENCE
MECHANICS
METALS
NONMETALS
RADIATIONS
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
640302* - Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics- Atomic & Molecular Properties & Theory