Precise measurement of the Stark shift of the rubidium and potassiumD1 lines

Abstract

The dc Stark shift of the D1 lines of rubidium and potassium are observed using a pair of cavitystabilized diode lasers locked to resonance signals. The heterodyne signal from the two lasers and the optical measurements of the electrode spacing yield high-precision results. The observed scalar shifts are found to be 61.153(8) kHz (kV/cm) ' for rubidium and 39.400(5) kHz (kV/cm) for potassium.These results represent more than three orders of magnitude improvement in our knowledge of these Stark shifts.PACS number(s): 32.60.+i, 35.10.Di, 35.80.+s

Stark effect investigations of resonance lines of neutral potassium, rubidium, europium and gallium

“…For the D 1 -lines recently accurate experimental results for k were published [5]. Our value for the K D 1 -line is in good agreement with this measurement.…”

“…Our value for the K D 1 -line is in good agreement with this measurement. Due to the limited wavelength range of our dye laser, the polarizability of the Rb D 1 -line could not be determined, but the results of [5] included in Table 3 for completeness. The scalar polarizabilities of the D 2 -lines differ significantly from the D 1 -values due to the large fine structure splitting of these heavy alkali metals.…”

“…Highly precise measurements of the shift of the D 1 -lines of Li and K, Rb were also reported by Hunter et al [4] and Miller et al [5], obtained in fields up to 40 kV/cm using heterodyne spectroscopy. Extending our previous work to the heavier alkali elements, we have examined in high electric fields the potassium D-lines and the rubidium D 2 -line (the Rb D 1 -line was outside the available spectral range).…”

Absolute and ratio measurements of the polarizability of Na, K, and Rb with an atom interferometer

“…These measurements provide benchmark tests of atomic theory calculations. Our ground-state polarizability measurements may be combined with transition Starkshift measurements [34][35][36][37] to yield improved knowledge of excited-state polarizabilities and additional dipole matrix elements [33,38].…”

Dynamic dipole polarizabilities of the Li atom and the Be+ion

“…The best experimental measurements of the Stark shift have been carried out for the alkali atoms and accuracies better than 0.1% have been reported [12,13]. Experimental work at this level of accuracy relies on a very precise determination of the electric field strength in the interaction region [13][14][15].…”