The NPL Rydberg Constant Experiment

Author

Flowers, Jeffrey L. ; Baird, Patrick E G ; Bougueroua, Lamine ; Klein, Hugh A. ; Margolis, Helen S.

Author_Institution

National Phys. Lab., Teddington

Volume

56

Issue

2

fYear

2007

fDate

4/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

331

Lastpage

335

Abstract

We describe the characterization of the apparatus that has been constructed at the National Physical Laboratory for absolute optical frequency measurements of a number of two-photon 2S-nS,D transitions in the hydrogen atom. The use of a femtosecond optical frequency comb will enable many transitions to be studied under near-identical conditions, whereas the use of optical excitation for efficient production of the metastable 2S state will reduce ac Stark shifts. These improvements are expected to lead to significantly reduced uncertainty in the measured transition frequencies. Together with results from other experiments worldwide, this paper will contribute to an improved determination of the Rydberg constant

Keywords

Rydberg states; Stark effect; constants; frequency measurement; high-speed optical techniques; hydrogen neutral atoms; metastable states; optical variables measurement; two-photon spectra; Rydberg constant; Stark shifts; femtosecond comb; hydrogen atom; optical frequency measurements; spectroscopy; Atom optics; Atomic beams; Atomic measurements; Frequency measurement; Hydrogen; Laboratories; Metastasis; Spectroscopy; Ultrafast optics; Vacuum systems; Femtosecond comb; Rydberg constant; hydrogen; spectroscopy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TIM.2007.890598

Filename

4126858