1998/02/11 by Dominique Delande, Jakub Zakrzewski
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.58.466
14 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 1998/02/11 · openalex publication_date 1998/07/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Nondispersive electronic Rydberg wave packets may be created in atoms illuminated by a microwave field of circular polarization. We discuss the spontaneous emission from such states, and show that the elastic incoherent component (occurring at the frequency of the driving field) dominates the spectrum in the semiclassical limit, contrary to earlier predictions. We calculate the frequencies of single-photon emissions and the associated rates in the ``harmonic approximation,'' i.e., when the wave packet has approximately a Gaussian shape. The results agree well with exact quantum-mechanical calculations, which validates the analytical approach.