Coherent Spin Manipulation and ESR on Superfluid Helium Nanodroplets

Journal Article · Fri Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.035302· OSTI ID:21347064

Koch, Markus; Auboeck, Gerald; Callegari, Carlo; Ernst, Wolfgang E ^[1]

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1. Institute of Experimental Physics, TU Graz, Petersgasse 16, A-8010 Graz (Austria)

Superfluid helium nanodroplets provide a versatile substrate to cool atoms and molecules, and to assemble weakly bound complexes. Absence of spin-relaxation mechanisms makes He nanodroplets ideal to isolate open-shell atoms and create a spin-polarized system. Here, we show the first coherent manipulation of such a system by resonant excitation of a magnetic-dipole transition. Observation of approx =50 Rabi oscillations demonstrates coherent population transfer with minimal dephasing. Ours is also the first application of ESR spectroscopy to doped He nanodroplets. This unique environment results in extremely sharp lines and hyperfine-resolved spectra: those of single {sup 39}K and {sup 85}Rb dopant atoms presented here denote an increase of the Fermi contact interaction, which we can follow as a function of droplet size, reflecting the distortion of the valence-electron wave function due to the surrounding He.

• OSTI ID: 21347064
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.035302; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
DOPED MATERIALS
DROPLETS
ELECTRON SPIN RESONANCE
ELECTRONS
EXCITATION
HELIUM
M1-TRANSITIONS
NANOSTRUCTURES
OSCILLATIONS
POTASSIUM 39
RUBIDIUM 85
SPECTRA
SPECTROSCOPY
SPIN
SPIN ORIENTATION
SUPERFLUIDITY
WAVE FUNCTIONS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
FERMIONS
FLUIDS
FUNCTIONS
GASES
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LEPTONS
LIGHT NUCLEI
MAGNETIC RESONANCE
MATERIALS
MULTIPOLE TRANSITIONS
NANOSECONDS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ORIENTATION
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PARTICLES
POTASSIUM ISOTOPES
RADIOISOTOPES
RARE GASES
RESONANCE
RUBIDIUM ISOTOPES
STABLE ISOTOPES