Orbital Angular Momentum of Gauge Fields: Excitation of an Atom by Twisted Photons

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2014 · International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1142/S2010194514600489· OSTI ID:1116347

Afanasev, Andrei V. ^[1]; Carlson, Carl E. ^[2]; Mukherjee, Asmita ^[3]

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1. George Washington Univ., Washington, DC (United States)
2. William and Mary College, Williamsburg, VA and JLAB, Newport News, VA (United States)
3. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (India)

Twisted photon states, or photon states with large (> {h_bar}) angular momentum projection in the direction of motion, can photoexcite atomic final states of differing quantum numbers. If the photon symmetry axis coincides with the center of an atom, there are known selection rules that require exact matching between the quantum numbers of the photon and the photoexcited states. The more general case of arbitrarily positioned beams relaxes the selection rules but produces a distribution of quantum numbers of the final atomic states that is novel and distinct from final states produced by plane-wave photons. Numerical calculations are presented using a hydrogen atom as an example.

• Research Organization: Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC) (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-06OR23177
• OSTI ID: 1116347
• Report Number(s): JLAB-THY--13-1795; DOE/OR--23177-2979
• Conference Information: Journal Name: International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series Journal Volume: 25
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS