Stark deceleration and trapping of hydrogen Rydberg atoms
- Laboratorium fuer Physikalische Chemie, ETH Zuerich, CH-8093 Zurich (Switzerland)
Hydrogen atoms in supersonic expansions with velocities in the range from 700 to 800 m/s have been excited to Rydberg-Stark states with principal quantum number n between 20 and 40, decelerated to zero velocity in the lab frame using time-dependent inhomogeneous electric fields, and trapped in a two-dimensional electrostatic trap with an initial density of {approx_equal}5x10{sup 6} cm{sup -3}. The motion of the atomic cloud in the trap was observed by measuring the times of flight and images of the H{sup +} ions produced by pulsed field ionization. The velocity distribution of the trapped atoms can be described by an effective temperature of 350 mK. The decay of the population of trapped atoms does not follow a single-exponential behavior and has contributions from radiative and collisional processes.
- OSTI ID:
- 21011443
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 76, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.76.023405; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Multistage Zeeman deceleration of metastable neon
Optimizing the Stark-decelerator beamline for the trapping of cold molecules using evolutionary strategies