Streak-camera probing of rubidium Rydberg wave packet decay in an electric field

Journal Article · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.1784· OSTI ID:284417

Lankhuijzen, G M; Noordam, L D ^[1]

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1. Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter, Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

The decay of autoionizing electronic wave packets of rubidium in a static electric field of 2.0 kV/cm is studied. Using an atomic streak camera, the escape of the laser-excited Rydberg wave packets over the saddle point is measured. New information on the ionization dynamics is obtained that cannot be retrieved from optical recurrence spectra. For laser excitation perpendicular to the electric field at scaled energy {epsilon}={minus}1.74, the main ionization is delayed by 12 ps. For parallel polarization ({epsilon}={minus}1.32) the ionization occurs in two bursts, 7 ps separated. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

• OSTI ID: 284417
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 76; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
DECAY
ELECTRIC FIELDS
EXCITATION
IONIZATION
LIFETIME
POLARIZATION
PROBES
RUBIDIUM
RYDBERG STATES
SADDLE-POINT METHOD
STREAK CAMERAS
WAVE PACKETS