Rydberg wave packets

The discovery that classical periodic motions of the electron can account for the oscillations in photoabsorption spectra is an elegant experimental connection between classical and quantal theories, as well as being a striking demonstration of the Gutzwiller formalism [2], Over the last few years, experimentally created wave-packets have been used to identify the corresponding periodic motions. In these empirical studies, a Rydberg wave-packet is formed from a low-lying state by a short laser pulse and the time evolution of this wave-packet is probed by a second laser pulse. 

J. Parker, C.R. Stroud, Coherence and decay of Rydberg wave packets, Phys. Rev. Lett. 56 (1986) 716. 

H.M. Nilsen, J.P Hansen, Generation of an angular and radial Rydberg wave packet in a single laser pulse, Phys. Rev. A 63 (2001) 011405 (R). 

Recently, there has been a renewed interest in the de Broglie-Bohm formulation of quantum mechanics as a numerical tool to perform multidimensional wave packet calculations [13-15]. It has also been used to visualize the motion of quantum mechanical wave packets by trajectories and to study the transition from quantum mechanics to classical mechanics [16-18]. Carlsen and Goscinski [16], for instance, have studied fractional and full revivals of circular Rydberg wave packets in the hydrogen atoms using this formulation. 

Figure 14 Temporal development of a Rydberg wave packet in the first 100 ps after formation.

Depending on the kind of preparation, different types of Rydberg wave packets can be formed ... 

Angular Rydberg wave packets, on the other hand, are formed by a superposition, (7.28), with many different values of I and m but only a single fixed value of n. 

Fig. 7.16 (a) Excitation of a radial Rydberg wave packet by a short pump pulse from the ground state /> into a Rydberg state at its inner turning point and (b) its detection by a delayed photoionizing probe pulse [891]... 

G. Alber, P. Zoller, Laser-induced excitation of electronic Rydberg wave packets. Contemp. Phys. 32,185(1991)... 

T. Oka, Coherence and Decay of Rydberg Wave Packets , Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 351 (1980). 

When the Rydberg levels n m) are excited by a short laser pulse with the duration r from the ground state i) where the electron is localized within a few Bohr radii around the nucleus, the excitation process is fast compared to the oscillation period of a radial Rydberg wave packet, provided that T This fast excitation corresponds to a vertical tran-... 

---