van der Waals - Zeeman transitions of metastable neon atoms passing through a micro-slit copper grating

Karam, J.-C.; Grucker, Jules; Boustimi, M.; Perales, F.; Bocvarski, V.; Baudon, J.; Vassilev, G.; Robert, J.; Ducloy, M.

doi:10.1209/epl/i2005-10514-3

Cited by 15 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…The symmetry breaking induced by the wall leads to dipole-quadrupole mixing terms, which lead to admixtures to metastable levels [11,12]. While this effect has been analyzed in the non-retarded van-der-Waals regime [11,12], a fully quantum electrodynamic calculation of this effect would be of obvious interest. This fact is emphasized by the curious observation of a long-range, and conceivably super-long-range (micrometer-scale) interaction of metastable hydrogen 2S atoms with a conducting surface (the so-called Sokolov effect, see Refs.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Long-range atom-wall interactions and mixing terms: Metastable hydrogen

Jentschura

2015

Phys. Rev. A

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We investigate the interaction of metastable 2S hydrogen atoms with a perfectly conducting wall, including parity-breaking S-P mixing terms (with full account of retardation). The neighboring 2P 1/2 and 2P 3/2 levels are found to have a profound effect on the transition from the short-range, nonrelativistic regime, to the retarded form of the Casimir-Polder interaction. The corresponding P state admixtures to the metastable 2S state are calculated. We find the long-range asymptotics of the retarded Casimir-Polder potentials and mixing amplitudes, for general excited states, including a fully quantum electrodynamic treatment of the dipole-quadrupole mixing term. The decay width of the metastable 2S state is roughly doubled even at a comparatively large distance of 918 atom units (Bohr radii) from the perfect conductor. The magnitude of the calculated effects is compared to the unexplained Sokolov effect. , research on related matters has found continuously growing interest over the last decades [5][6][7][8]. In the non-retarded regime (close range), the interaction energy scales as 1/Z 3 with the atom-wall distance Z, while for atom-wall distances large in comparison to a typical atomic wavelength, the interaction energy scales as 1/Z 4 (see Chap. 8 of Ref.[9]). The leading term is given by virtual dipole transitions, while multipole corrections have recently been analyzed in Ref. [10]. The symmetry breaking induced by the wall leads to dipole-quadrupole mixing terms, which lead to admixtures to metastable levels [11,12]. While this effect has been analyzed in the non-retarded van-der-Waals regime [11,12], a fully quantum electrodynamic calculation of this effect would be of obvious interest. This fact is emphasized by the curious observation of a long-range, and conceivably super-long-range (micrometer-scale) interaction of metastable hydrogen 2S atoms with a conducting surface (the so-called Sokolov effect, see Refs. [13][14][15][16]). It is not far-fetched to suspect that this effect could be due to a quantum electrodynamically induced tail of the dipole-quadrupole mixing term in the atom-wall interaction. Namely, for the hydrogen 2S atom, the neighboring 2P 1/2 and 2P 3/2 levels are removed only by the Lamb shift and finestructure, respectively, while it is known that virtual states of lower energy can induce long-range tails in atomwall interactions, as well as in the Lamb shift between plates (see Refs. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]). The large admixtures typically induced in atomic systems when a metastable level couples to nearly degenerate states of opposite parity suggest that a closer investigation of the hydrogen system is warranted. Atomic units with = 4πǫ 0 = 1 and c = 1/α are used throughout this Rapid Communication, where α is the fine-structure constant. The electron charge is explicitly denoted as e unless stated otherwise.Retardation of the atom-wall interaction.-The quan-

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confidence: 99%

“…The Z-dependent position of the energy level is obtained after adding the "free-space Lamb shift" L and "free-space fine structure" F given in Eq. (12) to the Z-dependent energy shifts given in Eqs. (5) and (8).…”

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confidence: 99%

Long-range atom-wall interactions and mixing terms: Metastable hydrogen

Jentschura

2015

Phys. Rev. A

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“…The quadrupolar term, proportional to (D.n) -D /3, breaks the atomic-(or molecular-) state symmetry and is able to induce a wide variety of transitions. These transitions, which have been already observed in Ne*( P2) [4] and later in Ar*( P2), will be the central subject of this paper. When an external static magnetic field B is applied, a Zeeman contribution (g \\.^ m B) is added to the interaction (1), where g is the Lande factor, \\.^ is the Bohr magneton and m the magnetic number.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Nanoscopy of Surface-Induced van der Waals-Zeeman Transitions

Hamamda¹,

Grucker²,

Dutier³

et al. 2008

AIP Conference Proceedings

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A new potential energy surface for OH(A 2Σ+)-Kr: The van der Waals complex and inelastic scattering J. Chem. Phys. 137, 154305 (2012); 10.1063/1.4757859 Multistage Zeeman deceleration of metastable neon Transverse coherence of a natural metastable-atom nozzle beam : Scattering and van der Waals-Zeeman transitions AIP Conf. Proc. 740, 67 (2004); 10.1063/1.1843496 van der Waals-induced level coupling in metastable atom on surface collisions AIP Conf.Abstract, van der Waals transitions among magnetic sub-levels of a metastable rare gas atom passing near a surface immersed in a magnetic field, are described. Related transition amplitudes are calculated using both the sudden and the Landau-Zener approximations. Experimental data for Ne*( P2) atoms traversing a copper grating are presented. For a pair of surfaces {e.g. the opposite edges of a slit) and a sufficiently large coherence width, Fresnel's biprism interference fringes are obtained. From this interference pattern, detailed information about the transition amplitude at a sub-nanometric scale can be derived. The effect of gravity on this pattern is examined.

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“…This experiment has been described in details elsewhere [11] and we only give here a summary of the results. It is readily verified that, because of energy and momentum conservation rules, exo-energetic transitions (Δm < 0) induce deflections of the atomic trajectory by angles γ = (ΔE/E 0 ) 1/2 = 0.360 10 -3 B 1/2 (G 1/2 ) |Δm| 1/2 (14) In our case, these angles are a few mrad.…”

Section: Iv-2 Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is known that the vdW interaction alters significantly the diffraction patterns [10]. Here we combine the non-scalar part of this interaction, with the Zeeman interaction within a static magnetic field, to induce vdW-Zeeman transitions among the atomic magnetic sub-levels [11]. Such transitions can be used as tunable beam splitters.…”

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confidence: 99%