corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 99 » Issue 18
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 183003 (2007) [4 pages]

Transporting Rydberg Electron Wave Packets with Chirped Trains of Pulses

Download: PDF (2,285 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

J. J. Mestayer1, W. Zhao1, J. C. Lancaster1, F. B. Dunning1, C. O. Reinhold2,3, S. Yoshida4, and J. Burgdörfer4,3
1Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005-1892, USA
2Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6372, USA
3Department of Physics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Tennessee 37996, USA
4Institute for Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria, EU

Received 4 May 2007; published 2 November 2007

A protocol for steering Rydberg electrons towards targeted final states is realized with the aid of a chirped train of half-cycle pulses (HCPs). Its novel capabilities are demonstrated experimentally by transporting potassium atoms excited to the lowest-lying quasi-one-dimensional states in the ni=350 Stark manifold to a narrow range of much higher-n states. We demonstrate that this coherent state transfer is, to a high degree, reversible. The protocol allows for remarkable selectivity and is highly efficient, with typically over 80% of the parent atoms surviving the HCP sequence.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.183003
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.183003
PACS:
32.80.Qk, 32.60.+i, 32.80.Rm
 
< Previous Article | Next Article >