Coherent Time Evolution of Highly Excited Rydberg States in Pulsed Electric Field: Opening a New Scheme for Stringently Selective Field Ionization (NUCLEAR SCIENCE RESEARCH FACILITY-Beams and Fundamental Reaction)

Abstract

Coherent time evolution of highly excited Rydberg states in Rb (98 n 150) under pulsed electric field in high slew rate regime was investigated with the field ionization detection. We observed for the first time a discrete transition of the threshold ionization field with slew rate, the behavior of which depends also on the position of the low l states relative to the adjacent manifold. The experimental results strongly suggest that the coherent interference effect plays decisive role for such transitional behavior, and bring us a new, quite effective scheme for the stringently selective field ionization.