APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 79 » Issue 25

Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 4978 - 4981 (1997)

Creating and Detecting Shaped Rydberg Wave Packets

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Jeffrey L. Krause1, Kenneth J. Schafer2, M. Ben-Nun3, and Kent R. Wilson3
1Quantum Theory Project, P.O. Box 118435, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-8435
2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-4001
3Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093

Received 8 November 1996

Inherently quantum mechanical, transient nanostructures with dynamics on a picosecond time scale can be produced by controlling the quantum dynamics of Rydberg electrons. Ultrashort, tailored light pulses are used to build structures in position and/or momentum space from the wave function of an electron. The optimal laser pulses required to make these structures can be computed and synthesized in the laboratory. As an example, we present a structure consisting of five peaks which acts as a time-dependent grating and can be detected via ultrafast extreme ultraviolet diffraction.


©1997 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v79/p4978
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.4978
PACS: 32.80.Rm, 31.15.-p, 32.80.Qk, 42.50.Hz

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