Observation of Electric Quadrupole Transitions to Rydberg nd States of Ultracold Rubidium Atoms

2008/09/13 by Tong, D., Farooqi, S. M., van Kempen, E. G. M. +5
#Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0809.2341

Abstract

We report the observation of dipole-forbidden, but quadrupole-allowed, one-photon transitions to high Rydberg states in Rb. Using pulsed UV excitation of ultracold atoms in a magneto-optical trap, we excite 5s → nd transitions over a range of principal quantum numbers n=27-59. Compared to dipole-allowed (E1) transitions from 5s → np, these E2 transitions are weaker by a factor of approximately 2000. We also report measurements of the anomalous np_3/2 : np_1/2 fine-structure transition strength ratio for n=28-75. Both results are in agreement with theoretical predictions.

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