Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3993–3996 (2001)High-Angular-Momentum States in Cold Rydberg GasesReceived 3 April 2000; revised 14 December 2000; published in the issue dated 30 April 2001 Cold, dense Rydberg gases produced in a cold-atom trap are investigated using spectroscopic methods and time-resolved electron counting. Optical excitation on the discrete Rydberg resonances reveals long-lasting electron emission from the Rydberg gas ( >20ms). Our observations are explained by lm-mixing collisions between Rydberg atoms and slow electrons that lead to the population of long-lived high-angular-momentum Rydberg states. These atoms thermally ionize slowly and with large probabilities. © 2001 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3993
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3993
PACS:
32.80.Rm, 32.80.Pj, 34.60.+z, 52.25.Ya
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