Microwave Control of Rydberg Atoms

这个奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。在这个实验计划中，高激发态原子暴露在微波场中，有两个目标。第一个是了解一个多能级原子系统如何在广泛的原子态范围内与辐射场相互作用，从频率相对于固有原子频率较低的状态到频率相对于原子频率较高的状态，高到足以使一个光子的吸收可以使原子电离。在某些情况下，原子的反应更好地用经典描述，而在另一些情况下，则更好地用量子力学描述。理解这两种不同描述之间的联系是一个主要目标。第二种是通过改变原子所暴露的微波场的极化、频率和幅度来操纵和控制原子的性质。从经典和量子两个方面来理解这种控制是有意义的。这项工作的广泛影响有几个。首先，它可能会对经典力学和量子力学之间的联系带来新的有用的见解。这样的见解对物理学家和化学家特别有用，而且广受欢迎。操纵和控制激发态原子是当前反氢和量子计算研究的热点，也是激光操纵物理化学感兴趣分子的一个很好的原型系统。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).In this experimental program highly excited atoms are exposed to microwave fields with two goals. The first is to understand how a many level atomic system interacts with a radiation field over a broad range of atomic states, from one in which the frequency is low compared to the intrinsic atomic frequency to one in which the frequency is high compared to the atomic frequency, high enough that the absorption of one photon can ionize the atom. In some regimes the response of the atom is better described classically and in others quantum mechanically. Understanding the connections between the two different descriptions is a major goal. The second is to manipulate and control the properties of atoms by varying the polarization, frequency and amplitude of microwave fields to which they are exposed. An understanding of this control in both classical and quantum terms is sought.The broad impacts of this work are several. First, it is likely to lead to new and useful insights into the connections between classical and quantum mechanics. Such insights are particularly useful to physicists and chemists, and they are of wide popular interest. Manipulating and controlling excited atoms is of great current interest for anti hydrogen and quantum computing research, and it is an excellent prototype system for laser manipulation of molecules of interest in physical chemistry.