Abstract
By using a magneto-optical trap we have measured the Rb and two-photon millimeter-wave transitions for observing 100-kHz-wide resonances, in spite of the trap’s 10 G/cm magnetic-field gradient, in which one might expect to observe resonances 5 MHz wide. This resolution is possible because of the similarity of the factors in the initial and final states. Under the same conditions, the single-photon ns-np resonances are ∼5 MHz wide. To make useful measurements of these intervals, we turned off the trap field and used the 300-K atoms of the background Rb vapor. Together these measurements improve the accuracy of the s, p, and d quantum defects by an order of magnitude.
- Received 21 June 2002
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.67.052502
©2003 American Physical Society