Transition from Rydberg to giant-dipole-moment states of hydrogen atoms in crossed fields: A suggestion for an experiment

The pseudoseparation of the center of mass and relative motion of a hydrogen atom in crossed electric and magnetic fields led to a theoretical prediction of highly extended states localized in the outer potential well. These states correspond to an almost macroscopic separation between a proton and an electron, and give rise to giant dipole moments. In the present work we describe a simple, experimentally feasible, scheme for the preparation of a hydrogen atom in a superposition of such states. The preparation scheme is based on a two-step switching on of an external electric field, in the course of which the relative motion is trapped in the outer well. On the basis of classical simulations we suggest the experimental parameters at which trapping is achieved extremely efficiently.