This article reports the first optical frequency measurement of the $1\mathrm{S}-3\mathrm{S}$ transition in hydrogen. The excitation of this transition occurs at a wavelength of 205 nm which is obtained with two frequency doubling stages of a titanium sapphire laser at 820 nm. Its frequency is measured with an optical frequency comb. The second-order Doppler effect is evaluated from the observation of the motional Stark effect due to a transverse magnetic field perpendicular to the atomic beam. The measured value of the $1\mathrm{S}_{1/2}(F=1)-3\mathrm{S}_{1/2}(F=1)$ frequency splitting is $2 922 742 936.729 (13) \mathrm{MHz}$ with a relative uncertainty of $4.5\times10^{-12}$. After the measurement of the $1\mathrm{S}-2\mathrm{S}$ frequency, this result is the most precise of the optical frequencies in hydrogen.
The resonant spectra of hydrogen and anti-hydrogen atoms in the presence of an external electric field are compared theoretically. It is shown that nonresonant corrections to the transition frequency contain terms linear in the electric field. The existence of these terms does not violate space and time parity and leads to a difference in the resonant spectroscopic measurements for hydrogen and anti-hydrogen atoms in an external electric field. The one-photon 1s-2p and the two-photon 1s-2s resonances are investigated.
One- and two-photon transitions in the hydrogen atom are analytically evaluated in the absence and in the presence of an external electric field. The emission probabilities are different for the hydrogen and anti-hydrogen atoms due to the existence of contributions, linear in electric field. The magnitude of these contributions is evaluated within the nonrelativistic limit. The Coulomb Green function method is applied. Different nonrelativistic "forms" for the decay probabilities in combination with different gauge choices are considered. The three-photon E1E1E1 2p-1s transition probability is…
The angular and polarization properties of the photon pair emitted in the two--photon decay of $2s$ hyperfine states in hydrogenlike ions are investigated within the relativistic Dirac framework and second order perturbation theory. The studied transitions are $2s_{1/2}\,(F=1,0)\to1s_{1/2}\,(F=1,0)$ in Hydrogen atom and $2s_{1/2}\,(F=4,3)\to1s_{1/2}\,(F=4,3)$ in hydrogenlike Uranium ion. Two different emission patterns are found: For non-spin-flip transitions, the angular correlation ($i.e.$ the angular distribution of the emitted photons) is of the type $\sim 1+\cos^2θ$, while the linear pola…
Polarization properties of the photons emitted in the two-photon decay of hydrogen-like ions are studied within the framework of the density matrix and second-order perturbation theory. In particular, we derive the polarization correlation function that gives the probability of the (two-photon) coincidence measurement performed by polarization-sensitive detectors. Detailed calculations of this function are performed for the $2s_{1/2} \to 1s_{1/2}$ transition in neutral hydrogen as well as Xe$^{53+}$ and U$^{91+}$ ions. The obtained results allow us to understand the influence of relativistic a…
The nonresonant (NR) corrections are estimated for the most accurately measured two-photon transition 1s-2s in the hydrogen atom. These corrections depend on the measurement process and set a limit for the accuracy of atomic frequency measurements. With the measurement process adopted in the modern experiments the NR contribution for 1s-2s transition energy can reach 10^{-3} Hz while the experimental inaccuracy is quoted to be +/- 46 Hz.
Two-photon free-free transitions in elastic laser-assisted electron-hydrogen collisions are studied in the domain of high scattering energies and low or moderate field intensities, in the third order of perturbation theory, taking into account all the involved Feynman diagrams. Based on the analytical expressions of the transition amplitudes, the differential cross sections for two-photon absorption/emission are computed at impact energy $E_i=100$ eV. The effect of field polarizations on the angular distribution and on the frequency dependence of the differential cross section is analyzed.
The "proton radius puzzle" was recently solved by reducing the four-standard deviation discrepancy between the results for electronic hydrogen ($H$) and muonic hydrogen ($μH$) atoms to $3.3$ value. The value of the root-mean-square radius of the proton ($r_p$), extracted from experiments on measuring the one-photon $2s-4p$ transition and the Lamb shift in hydrogen, is now $0.8335(95)$ fm, that is in good agreement with the muonic hydrogen experiments, $0.84087(39)$ fm. Even so, these values deviate significantly from the CODATA value, which is determined as the average using the results for va…
In the present paper, we consider nonresonant corrections to $ 2s-ns/nd $ transition frequencies in hydrogen for the experiments based on two-photon spectroscopy. A detailed study of angular correlations of quantum interference effects within the framework of rigorous quantum electrodynamics is given. Closed expressions for the resonant two-photon scattering cross sections on an atomic level with dependence on all atomic quantum numbers including fine and hyperfine structure are derived. These expressions are applied for the description of experiments based on two-photon spectroscopy with fixi…
Within the framework of QED theory at finite temperature the thermal radiative corrections to spontaneous one-photon transition rates in hydrogen atom are investigated. The radiative one-loop self-energy corrections are described in the thermal case. Closed analytical expressions are derived and their numerical calculations for the spontaneous decay rate of the $ 2p $ state are carried out. Dominance of thermal radiative corrections to spontaneous Ly$_α $ decay rate over ordinary induced transition rate up to temperatures $ T < 6000 $ K is demonstrated.
The connection between the quantum frequency of radiation by the transition of the electron from orbit n to orbit k and frequencies of circling of electron in these orbits for the atom of hydrogen is determined.
We propose and analyze the possibility of performing two-photon continuous-wave Doppler-cooling of hydrogen atoms using the 1S-2S transition. "Quenching" of the 2S level (by coupling with the 2P state) is used to increase the cycling frequency, and to control the equilibrium temperature. Theoretical and numerical studies of the heating effect due to Doppler-free two-photon transitions evidence an increase of the temperature by a factor of two. The equilibrium temperature decreases with the effective (quenching dependent) width of the excited state and can thus be adjusted up to values close to…
The two-photon decay in hydrogen-like ions is investigated within the framework of second order perturbation theory and Dirac's relativistic equation. Special attention is paid to the angular correlation of the emitted photons as well as to the degree of linear polarization of one of the two photons, if the second is just observed under given angles. Expressions for the angular correlation and the degree of linear polarization are expanded in terms of $\cosθ$-polynomials, whose coefficients depend on the atomic number and the energy sharing of the emitted photons. The effects of including high…
Two--photon decay of hydrogen--like ions is studied within the framework of second--order perturbation theory, based on relativistic Dirac's equation. Special attention is paid to the effects arising from the summation over the negative--energy (intermediate virtual) states that occurs in such a framework. In order to investigate the role of these states, detailed calculations have been carried out for the $2s_{1/2} - 1s_{1/2}$ and $2p_{1/2} - 1s_{1/2}$ transitions in neutral hydrogen H as well as for hydrogen--like xenon Xe$^{53+}$ and uranium U$^{91+}$ ions. We found that for a correct evalu…
The non-resonant two-photon ionization of hydrogen-like ions is studied in second-order perturbation theory, based on the Dirac equation. To carry out the summation over the complete Coulomb spectrum, a Green function approach has been applied to the computation of the ionization cross sections. Exact second-order relativistic cross sections are compared with data as obtained from a relativistic long-wavelength approximation as well as from the scaling of non-relativistic results. For high-Z ions, the relativistic wavefunction contraction may lower the two-photon ionization cross sections by a…
A theoretical study the all two-photon transitions from initial bound states with ni = 2, 3 in hydrogenic ions is presented. High-precision values of relativistic decay rates for ions with nuclear charge in the range 1 =< Z =< 92 are obtained through the use of finite basis sets for the Dirac equation constructed from B-splines. We also report the spectral (energy) distributions of several resonant transitions, which exhibit interesting structures, such as zeroes in the emission spectrum, indicating that two-photon emission is strongly suppressed at certain frequencies. We compare two differen…
A rigorous QED theory of the multiphoton decay of excited states in hydrogen atom is presented. The "two-photon" approximation is formulated which is limited by the one-photon and two-photon transitions including cascades transitions with two-photon links. This may be helpful for the strict description of the recombination process in hydrogen atom and, in principle, for the history of the hydrogen recombination in the early Universe.
We present a unified view of the frequency dependence of the various scattering processes involved when a neutral hydrogen atom interacts with a monochromatic, linearly-polarized photon. A computational approach is employed of the atom trapped by a finite-sized-box due to a finite basis-set expansion, which generates a set of transition matrix elements between $E<0$ eigenstates and $E>0$ pseudostates. We introduce a general computational methodology that enables the computation of the frequency-dependent dipole transition polarizability with one real and two different imaginary contributions. …
The angular distribution of the emitted electrons, following the two-photon ionization of the hydrogen-like ions, is studied within the framework of second order perturbation theory and the Dirac equation. Using a density matrix approach, we have investigated the effects which arise from the polarization of the incoming light as well as from the higher multipoles in the expansion of the electron--photon interaction. For medium- and high-Z ions, in particular, the non-dipole contributions give rise to a significant change in the angular distribution of the emitted electrons, if compared with th…
We calculate the rate of the spontaneous magnetic dipole radiation transitions from ortho- to para-states of the hydrogen molecule at the room temperature with the radiation wavelengths about 0.01 - 0.1 cm. Exponentially small differences between the rotational energies and heat capacities of parahydrogen and orthohydrogen molecules and also diatomic molecules consisting of different hydrogen atoms for high temperatures are derived.
We consider a hydrogenic system with a nucleus of finite mass. The coupling of the radiation field to the center of mass motion gives rise to an effective scalar type coupling. This induced scalar photon interaction emerges as a correction in competition with the usual multipole interactions. This effect is particularly important in positronium where the electric quadrupole interaction is totally suppressed. We illustrate this effect with the two-photon decay of metastable hydrogenic systems.
The angular distribution of the emitted electrons, following the two--photon ionization of the hydrogen--like ions, is studied within the framework of second order perturbation theory \textit{and} the Dirac equation. Using a density matrix approach, we have investigated the effects which arise from the polarization of the incoming light as well as from the higher multipoles in the expansion of the electron--photon interaction. For medium-- and high--Z ions, in particular, the non--dipole contributions give rise to a significant change in the angular distribution of the emitted electrons, if co…
We use the dressed atom formalism to calculate the frequency shift in a hydrogen maser induced by applied radiation near the Zeeman frequency, and find excellent agreement with a previous calculation made in the bare atom basis. The maser oscillates on the Delta_F = 1, Delta_m_F = 0 hyperfine transition, while the applied field is swept through the F = 1, Delta_m_F = \pm 1 Zeeman resonance. We determine the effect of the applied field on the Zeeman levels using the dressed atom picture, and then calculate the maser frequency shift by coupling the dressed states to the microwave cavity. Qualita…
We have measured the 1S - 2S transition frequency in atomic hydrogen via two photon spectroscopy on a 5.8 K atomic beam. We obtain $f_{1S-2S} = 2 466 061 413 187 035 (10)$ Hz for the hyperfine centroid. This is a fractional frequency uncertainty of $4.2\times 10^{-15}$ improving the previous measure- ment by our own group [M. Fischer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 230802 (2004)] by a factor of 3.3. The probe laser frequency was phase coherently linked to the mobile cesium fountain clock FOM via a frequency comb.
The total two-photon decay rate of hydrogen-like ions is studied using relativistic quantum electrodynamics. In particular, we analyse how finite nuclear size and QED vacuum polarization corrections affect the decay rate. To calculate these corrections, a finite basis set method based on $B$-splines is used for the generation of quasi-complete atomic spectra and, hence, of the relativistic Green's function. By making use of this $B$-spline approach, high precision calculations have been performed for the $2s_{1/2} \to 1s_{1/2} + 2γ$ and $2p_{1/2} \to 1s_{1/2} + 2γ$ decay of hydrogen-like ions …
We investigate the gauge invariance of the leading logarithmic radiative correction to the two-photon decay width in hydrogenlike atoms. It is shown that an effective treatment of the correction using a Lamb-shift "potential" leads to equivalent results in both the length as well as the velocity gauges provided all relevant correction terms are taken into account. Specifically, the relevant radiative corrections are related to the energies that enter into the propagator denominators, to the Hamiltonian, to the wave functions, and to the energy conservation condition that holds between the two …
We study the polarization characteristics of x-ray photons scattered by hydrogenic atoms, based on the Dirac equation and second-order perturbation theory. The relativistic states used in calculations are obtained using the finite basis set method and expressed in terms of B-splines and B-polynomials. We derive general analytical expressions for the polarization-dependent total cross sections, which are applicable to any atom and ion, and evaluate them separately for linear and circular polarization of photons. In particular, detailed calculations are performed for the integrated Stokes parame…
We calculate the DC Stark effect for three molecular hydrogen ions in the non-relativistic approximation. The effect is calculated both in dependence on the rovibrational state and in dependence on the hyperfine state. We discuss special cases and approximations. We also calculate the AC polarisabilities for several rovibrational levels, and therefrom evaluate accurately the black-body radiation shift, including the effects of excited electronic states. The results enable the detailed evaluation of certain systematic shifts of the transitions frequencies for the purpose of ultra-high-precision…
We present a new measurement of the $1S-3S$ two-photon transition frequency of hydrogen, realized with a continuous-wave excitation laser at 205 nm on a room-temperature atomic beam, with a relative uncertainty of $9\times10^{-13}$. The proton charge radius deduced from this measurement, $r_\text{p}=0.877(13)$ fm, is in very good agreement with the current CODATA-recommended value. This result contributes to the ongoing search to solve the proton charge radius puzzle, which arose from a discrepancy between the CODATA value and a more precise determination of $r_\text{p}$ from muonic hydrogen s…
We describe the current status of high-precision ab initio calculations of the spectra of molecular hydrogen ions (H_2^+ and HD^+) and of two experiments for vibrational spectroscopy. The perspectives for a comparison between theory and experiment at a level of 1 ppb are considered.
We have observed the cold collision frequency shift of the 1S-2S transition in trapped spin-polarized atomic hydrogen. We find $Δν_{1S-2S} = -3.8(8)\times 10^{-10} n Hz cm^3$, where $n$ is the sample density. From this we derive the 1S-2S s-wave triplet scattering length, $a_{1S-2S}=-1.4(3)$ nm, which is in fair agreement with a recent calculation. The shift provides a valuable probe of the distribution of densities in a trapped sample.
Thermal corrections to the one-photon spontaneous and induced transition probabilities for hydrogen and hydrogen-like ions are evaluated. The found thermal corrections are given by the vertex Feynman graph, where the vertex represents the thermal interaction between the bound electron and the nucleus. All derivations of thermal corrections to bound-bound transitions for an atom exposed to blackbody radiation (BBR) are made in a fully relativistic approach within the framework of the adiabatic $S$-matrix formalism. It is found that the vertex-type radiative corrections to the transition rates c…
We present a theoretical investigation of the radiative recombination of twisted Bessel electrons with initially hydrogen-like (finally helium-like) heavy ions. In our study, we focus especially on the linear polarization of x-ray photons emitted in the electron capture into the ground $1s^2_{1/2}$ ionic state. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of how this polarization is affected if incident hydrogen-like ions are themselves spin-polarized. To explore such a "polarization transfer" we apply the density matrix theory and derive the Stokes parameters of recombination x-rays for the …
Quantum interference between energetically close states is theoretically investigated, with the state structure being observed via laser spectroscopy. In this work, we focus on hyperfine states of selected hydrogenic muonic isotopes, and on how quantum interference affects the measured Lamb shift. The process of photon excitation and subsequent photon decay is implemented within the framework of nonrelativistic second-order perturbation theory. Due to its experimental interest, calculations are performed for muonic hydrogen, deuterium, and helium-3. We restrict our analysis to the case of phot…
The problem of the evaluation of the two-photon decay width of excited states in hydrogen is considered. Two different approaches to the evaluation of the width including cascades channels are employed: the summation of the transition probabilities for various decay channels and the evaluation of the imaginary part of the Lamb shift. As application the decay channels for the 3s level of the hydrogen atom are evaluated, including the cascade transition probability 3s-2p-1s as well as "pure" two-photon decay probability and the interference between both channels. An important role should be assi…
We demonstrate a continuous-wave ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier which produces 6.3 W at a wavelength of 972.5 nm. We frequency quadruple this source in two resonant doubling stages to produce 530 mW at 243.1 nm. Radiation at this wavelength is required to excite the 1S-2S transition in atomic hydrogen and could therefore find application in experimental studies of hydrogen and anti-hydrogen.
We calculate the cross-damping frequency shift of a laser-induced two-photon transition monitored through decay fluorescence, by adapting the analogy with Raman scattering developed by Amaro et al. [P. Amaro et al., PRA 92, 022514 (2015)]. We apply this method to estimate the frequency shift of the 1S-3S transition in hydrogen and deuterium. Taking into account our experimental conditions, we find a frequency shift of less than 1 kHz, that is smaller than our current statistical uncertainty.
In this paper, we describe an experiment which was conducted to explore the macro-coherent amplification mechanism using a two-photon emission process from the first vibrationally-excited state of para-hydrogen molecule. Large coherence in the initial state was prepared by the adiabatic Raman population transfer method, and the lowest Stokes sideband was used as a trigger field. We observed the coherent two-photon emission consistent with the expectation of the paired super-radiance master equation.
We develop an approach to describing coherent Compton scattering of photons in the keV energy range from hydrogen and helium atoms based on a relativistic version of the AA-approximation within the standard perturbative S-matrix formalism. The resulting formulas for the cross section take into account the effects of the electron boundness and correctly reproduce the behavior of the cross section at large photon energies, where it goes to Thomson formula, which coincides with the Klein-Nishina-Tamm formula for the cross section in the non-relativistic limit.
The results for the total multi-photon decay rates of the 3p and 4s levels of hydrogen, presented by D. Solovyev and L. Labzowsky within the cascade approximation, are revisited. The corrected results for certain decay channels differ from original ones of those authors sometimes by order of magnitude. Some aspects with respect to the cosmological recombination process are clarified.
In the framework of the quasipotential method in quantum electrodynamics we calculate corrections to the nuclear structure proportional to $r_N^2$ from two-photon exchange amplitudes in the fine and hyperfine structure of P-states in muonic hydrogen, as well as the photon-photon interaction amplitudes, leading to the exchange of the axial vector meson. In constructing the quasipotential of the muon-nucleus interaction, we use the method of projection operators on states of two particles with a definite spin and total angular momentum. Analytical calculation of the matrix elements is performed …
We demonstrate a \SI{650}{\mW} \SI{243}{\nm} continuous-wave laser coupled to a linear optical enhancement cavity. The enhancement cavity can maintain $>$\SI{30}{\W} of intracavity power for \SI{1}{\hour} of continuous operation without degradation. This system has sufficient power for a demonstration of two-photon laser cooling of hydrogen and may be useful for experiments on other simple two-body atomic systems.
We report coherent enhancement of two-photon emission from the excited vibrational state of molecular hydrogen triggered by irradiating mid-infrared pulses externally. We previously observed the two-photon emission triggered by the internally generated fourth Stokes photons. By injecting independent mid-infrared pulses externally, it is possible to control experimental parameters and investigate the mechanism in more detail. In this article, we describe the two-photon emission using the external trigger pulses. Its spectrum and dependence on the energy and timing of the trigger pulse are prese…
We investigate nonresonant contributions to resonant Rayleigh scattering cross sections of atoms. The problematic nonresonant contributions set a limit to the accuracy to which atomic spectra determine energy levels. We discuss the off-resonance effects in one-photon transitions. We also show that off-resonance contributions for the 1S-2S two-photon transition in atomic hydrogen are negligible at current and projected levels of experimental accuracy. The possibility of a differential measurement for the detection of off-resonance effects in one-photon transitions in atomic hydrogen is discusse…
We study the total cross section and angular distribution in Rayleigh scattering by hydrogen atom in the ground state, within the framework of Dirac relativistic equation and second-order perturbation theory. The relativistic states used for the calculations are obtained by making use of the finite basis set method and expressed in terms of B-splines and B-polynomials. We pay particular attention to the effects that arise from higher (non-dipole) terms in the expansion of the electron-photon interaction. It is shown that the angular distribution of scattered photons, while it is symmetric with…
We reevaluate the Zemach, recoil and polarizability corrections to the hyperfine splitting in muonic hydrogen expressing them through the low-energy proton structure constants and obtain the precise values of the Zemach radius and two-photon exchange (TPE) contribution. The uncertainty of TPE correction to S energy levels in muonic hydrogen of 105 ppm exceeds the ppm accuracy level of the forthcoming 1S hyperfine splitting measurements at PSI, J-PARC and RIKEN-RAL.
The amplitude of two-photon transitions between hyperfine states in hydrogenlike ions is derived based on relativistic Dirac equation and second order perturbation theory. We study angular and linear polarization properties of the photon pair emitted in the decay of $2s$ states, where spin-flip and non-spin-flip transitions are highlighted. We pay particular attention to hydrogenlike uranium, since it is an ideal candidate for investigating relativistic and high-multipole effects, such as spin-flip transitions. Two types of emission patterns are identified: i) non-spin-flip transitions are fou…
We observed two-photon emission signals from the first vibrationally excited state of parahydrogen gas excited coherently by counter-propagating laser pulses. A single narrow-linewidth laser source was used to excite the parahydrogen molecules and induce the two-photon emission process. We measured how the signal energy depended on the detuning, target gas pressure, and input pulse energies. These results are qualitatively consistent with those obtained by numerical simulations based on the Maxwell-Bloch equations with one spatial dimension and one temporal dimension. This study of two-photon …
We describe a nonperturbative (in Zalpha) numerical evaluation of the one-photon electron self energy for 3P_{1/2}, 3P_{3/2}, 4P_{1/2} and 4P_{3/2} states in hydrogenlike atomic systems with charge numbers Z=1 to 5. The numerical results are found to be in agreement with known terms in the expansion of the self energy in powers of Zalpha and lead to improved theoretical predictions for the self-energy shift of these states.
The quantum electrodynamical theory of the three-photon transitions in hydrogen-like ions is presented. Emission probabilities of various three-photon decay channels for $ 2p_{3/2} $, $ 2p_{1/2} $ and $ 2s_{1/2} $ states are calculated for the nuclear charge $Z$ values $1\leqslant Z \leqslant 95$. The results are given in two different gauges. The fully relativistic three-photon decay rates of hydrogen-like ions with half-integer nuclear spin are given for transitions between fine structure components. The results can be applied to the tests of the Bose-Einstein statistics for the multiphoton …
A new approach is laid out to investigate the two photon atomic transitions. It is based on application of the finite basis solutions constructed from the Bernstein Polynomial (B-Polynomial) sets. We show that such an approach provides a very promising route for the relativistic second- (and even higher-order) calculations since it allows for analytical evaluation of the involved matrices elements. In order to illustrate possible applications of the method and to verify its accuracy, detailed calculations are performed for the 2s_{1/2}-1s_{1/2} transition in neutral hydrogen and hydrogen-like …
We obtain a model-independent prediction for the two-photon exchange contribution to the hyperfine splitting in muonic hydrogen. We use the relation of the Wilson coefficients of the spin-dependent dimension-six four-fermion operator of NRQED applied to the electron-proton and to the muon-proton sectors. Their difference can be reliably computed using chiral perturbation theory, whereas the Wilson coefficient of the electron-proton sector can be determined from the hyperfine splitting in hydrogen. This allows us to give a precise model-independent determination of the Wilson coefficient for th…
We compute the spin-dependent and spin-independent structure functions of the forward virtual-photon Compton tensor of the proton at one loop using heavy baryon effective theory including the Delta particle. We compare with previous results when existing. Using these results we obtain the leading hadronic contributions, associated to the pion and Delta particles, to the Wilson coefficients of the lepton-proton four fermion operators in NRQED. The spin-independent coefficient yields a pure prediction for the two-photon exchange contribution to the muonic hydrogen Lamb shift, $ΔE_{\rm TPE}(π\&Δ)…
The relativistic and nonrelativistic approaches for the calculations of the two-photon decay rates of highly excited states in hydrogen are compared. The dependence on the principal quantum number (n) of the ns, nd, and np initial states is investigated up to n = 100 for the nonresonant emissions. For the ns states together with the main E1E1 channel the contributions of higher multipoles (M1M1, E2E2, E1M2) are considered. For the np states the E1M1 and E1E2 channels are evaluated. Moreover, the simple analytical formula for the E1M1 decay is derived in the nonrelativistic limit.
Based on quantum electrodynamics, we reexamine the two-photon decay of one-electron atoms. Special attention is paid to the calculation of the (two-photon) total decay rates which can be viewed as the imaginary part of the two-loop self-energy. We argue that our approach can easily be applied to the cases with a virtual state having an intermediate energy between the initial and the final state of the decay process leading, thus, to the resonance peaks in the two-photon energy distribution. In order to illustrate our approach, we obtain fully relativistic results, resolved into electric and ma…
We calculate transition amplitudes and cross sections for excitation of hydrogen-like atoms by the twisted photon states, or photon states with angular momentum projection on the direction of propagation exceeding $\hbar$. If the target atom is located at distances of the order of atomic size near the phase singularity in the vortex center, the transitions rates into the states with orbital angular momentum $l_f>1$ become comparable with the rates for electric dipole transitions. It is shown that when the transition rates are normalized to the local photon flux, the resulting cross sections fo…
The systematic shifts of the transition frequencies in the molecular hydrogen ions are of relevance to ultra-high-resolution radio-frequency, microwave and optical spectroscopy of these systems, performed in ion traps. We develop the ab-initio description of the interaction of the electric quadrupole moment of this class of molecules with the static electric field gradients present in ion traps. In good approximation, it is described in terms of an effective perturbation hamiltonian. An approximate treatment is then performed in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. We give an expression of the …
The previously derived vortex atomic form factor, which is directly related to a differential reaction cross section, is used to analyze the elastic scattering of twisted vortex photons with a hydrogenic atomic target. The vortex atomic form factor is expressed in a unified spherical basis and implemented in a MatLab code that numerically evaluates it using globally adaptive quadrature. The results of this code show the influence of variation in the photon wavelength, Rayleigh range, and scattering angle on differential reaction cross sections and the twist factor, which measures the impact of…
We demonstrate a 1.4 W continuous wavelength (CW) laser at 243.1 nm. The radiation is generated through frequency quadrupling the output of a ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier system which produces $>$ 10 W of CW power at 972.5 nm. We demonstrate absolute frequency control by locking the laser to an optical frequency comb and exciting the 1S-2S transition in atomic hydrogen. This frequency-stabilized, high-power deep-UV laser should be of significant interest for precision spectroscopy of simple and exotic atoms, two-photon laser cooling of hydrogen, and Raman spectroscopy.
We report observation of Bose-Einstein condensation of a trapped, dilute gas of atomic hydrogen. The condensate and normal gas are studied by two-photon spectroscopy of the 1S-2S transition. Interactions among the atoms produce a shift of the resonance frequency proportional to density. The condensate is clearly distinguished by its large frequency shift. The peak condensate density is 4.8 +/- 1.1 \times 10^{15} cm^{-3}, corresponding to a condensate population of 10^9 atoms. The BEC transition occurs at about T=50 uK and n=1.8 \times 10^{14} cm^{-3}.
