Metrology of Rydberg states of the hydrogen atom

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Scheidegger, Simon, Agner, Josef A., Schmutz, Hansjürg, Merkt, Frédéric
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913187530539008
author Scheidegger, Simon
Agner, Josef A.
Schmutz, Hansjürg
Merkt, Frédéric
author_facet Scheidegger, Simon
Agner, Josef A.
Schmutz, Hansjürg
Merkt, Frédéric
contents We present a method to precisly measure the frequencies of transitions to high-$n$ Rydberg states of the hydrogen atom which are not subject to uncontrolled systematic shifts caused by stray electric fields. The method consists in recording Stark spectra of the field-insensitive $k=0$ Stark states and the field-sensitive $k=\pm2$ Stark states, which are used to calibrate the electric field strength. We illustrate this method with measurements of transitions from the $2\,\text{s}(f=0\text{ and } 1)$ hyperfine levels in the presence of intentionally applied electric fields with strengths in the range between $0.4$ and $1.6\,$Vcm$^{-1}$. The slightly field-dependent $k=0$ level energies are corrected with a precisely calculated shift to obtain the corresponding Bohr energies $\left(-cR_{\mathrm{H}}/n^2\right)$. The energy difference between $n=20$ and $n=24$ obtained with our method agrees with Bohr's formula within the $10\,$kHz experimental uncertainty. We also determined the hyperfine splitting of the $2\,\text{s}$ state by taking the difference between transition frequencies from the $2\,\text{s}(f=0 \text{ and }1)$ levels to the $n=20,k=0$ Stark states. Our results demonstrate the possibility of carrying out precision measurements in high-$n$ hydrogenic quantum states.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_12721
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Metrology of Rydberg states of the hydrogen atom
Scheidegger, Simon
Agner, Josef A.
Schmutz, Hansjürg
Merkt, Frédéric
Atomic Physics
We present a method to precisly measure the frequencies of transitions to high-$n$ Rydberg states of the hydrogen atom which are not subject to uncontrolled systematic shifts caused by stray electric fields. The method consists in recording Stark spectra of the field-insensitive $k=0$ Stark states and the field-sensitive $k=\pm2$ Stark states, which are used to calibrate the electric field strength. We illustrate this method with measurements of transitions from the $2\,\text{s}(f=0\text{ and } 1)$ hyperfine levels in the presence of intentionally applied electric fields with strengths in the range between $0.4$ and $1.6\,$Vcm$^{-1}$. The slightly field-dependent $k=0$ level energies are corrected with a precisely calculated shift to obtain the corresponding Bohr energies $\left(-cR_{\mathrm{H}}/n^2\right)$. The energy difference between $n=20$ and $n=24$ obtained with our method agrees with Bohr's formula within the $10\,$kHz experimental uncertainty. We also determined the hyperfine splitting of the $2\,\text{s}$ state by taking the difference between transition frequencies from the $2\,\text{s}(f=0 \text{ and }1)$ levels to the $n=20,k=0$ Stark states. Our results demonstrate the possibility of carrying out precision measurements in high-$n$ hydrogenic quantum states.
title Metrology of Rydberg states of the hydrogen atom
topic Atomic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.12721