Millimeter-Wave Spectroscopy of Cold Rb Rydberg Atoms in a Magneto-Optical Trap: Quantum Defects of the ns, np, and nd Series

Authors

Wenhui Li
I. Mourachko
Michael Noel, Bryn Mawr CollegeFollow
T. F. Gallagher

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Physical Review A

Volume

67

Publication Date

5-2003

Abstract

By using a magneto-optical trap we have measured the Rb ns-(n+1)s and nd(j)-(n+1)d(j) two-photon millimeter-wave transitions for 32less than or equal tonless than or equal to37, observing 100-kHz-wide resonances, in spite of the trap's 10 G/cm magnetic-field gradient, in which one might expect to observe resonances 5 MHz wide. This resolution is possible because of the similarity of the g(j) factors in the initial and final states. Under the same conditions, the single-photon ns-np resonances are similar to5 MHz wide. To make useful measurements of these intervals, we turned off the trap field and used the 300-K atoms of the background Rb vapor. Together these measurements improve the accuracy of the s, p, and d quantum defects by an order of magnitude.

Publisher's Statement

© 2003 by the American Physical Society. The publisher's version of the article can be found at http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.67.052502.

Citation

W.H. Li, I. Mourachko, M.W. Noel and T.F. Gallagher, Phys. Rev. A 67, 52502 (2003).

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevA.67.052502