Manipulation of atomic l-state distributions using pulsed electric fields

摘要

A technique to manipulate the l-state distribution of high-n Rydberg atoms is described that is based on the application of a large-amplitude rectangular electric field pulse whose rise and fall times are short compared to the classical electron orbital period and whose duration is comparable to the Stark period in the field. It is shown that by varying the duration (and/or amplitude) of this pulse, the final l-state distribution can be controlled and that this distribution can be calculated reliably using classical trajectory Monte Carlo techniques.