Observing angular precession of a Rydberg wave packet due to spin-orbit coupling by orthogonal polarized half-cycle pulses

ORAL

Abstract

We investigate the response of an $np$ Rydberg wave packet to orthogonal polarized half-cycle pulses(HCPs) over the course of its field free evolution. The population redistribution from $p$ to $s$ states is highly sensitive to the polarization of HCPs and changes with the precession of the electron orbits due to spin-orbit coupling. The selection rules of HCP redistribution are obtained and an intuitive classical interpretation is given.

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Authors

  • Haidan Wen

  • Santosh Pisharody

  • Joel Murray

  • Philip Bucksbaum

    FOCUS Center, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, FOCUS Center, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor