2020/10/26 by R. Engels, Martin Büscher, Engels, R. +19
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Scientific Research and Discoveries
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2010.13690
openalex publication_date 2020/10/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The origin of quantum physics was the discovery of the base unit of electromagnetic action h by Max Planck in 1900 when he analyzed the experimental results of the black body radiation. This permitted Albert Einstein a few years later to explain the photoelectric effect by the absorption of photons with an energy of E = h ⋅ f. We exploit the Planck-Einstein relation in a new type of fundamental spectroscopic measurements of direct transitions between two states with energy differences of about 10 neV and induced frequencies of a few MHz. Employing a Lamb-shift polarimeter and a Sona transition unit, featuring a relatively simple magnetic field configuration of two opposing solenoidal coils, we were able to determine f and measure E independently. Only resonances corresponding to integer multiples of Planck's constant h were observed in our setup, which can very well be explained quantitatively by the Schrödinger equation. This new method beautifully demonstrates the quantization in the micro-cosmos and allows one to measure the hyperfine splitting energies between the substates with F=1 and mF = -1, 0, +1 of metastable hydrogen atoms as function of a magnetic field and, thus, to investigate the influence of QED corrections on the Breit-Rabi diagram.