Intercombination effects in resonant energy transfer

Vaillant, C.L.; Potvliege, R.M.; Jones, M.P.A.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of intercombination transitions in excitation hopping processes such as those found in Förster resonance energy transfer. Taking strontium Rydberg states as our model system, the breakdown of LS coupling leads to weakly allowed transitions between Rydberg states of different spin quantum number. We show that the long-range interactions between two Rydberg atoms can be affected by these weakly allowed spin transitions, and the effect is greatest when there is a near degeneracy between the initial state and a state with a different spin quantum number. We also consider a case of four atoms in a spin chain and show that a spin impurity can resonantly hop along the chain. By engineering the many-body energy levels of the spin chain, the breakdown of LS coupling due to interelectronic effects in individual atoms can be mapped onto a spatial separation of the total spin and the total orbital angular momentum along the spin chain.

Citation

Vaillant, C., Potvliege, R., & Jones, M. (2015). Intercombination effects in resonant energy transfer. Physical Review A, 92(4), Article 042705. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.92.042705

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 16, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Oct 14, 2015
• Publication Date: Oct 14, 2015
• Deposit Date: Oct 15, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 20, 2015
• Journal: Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Print ISSN: 1050-2947
• Electronic ISSN: 1094-1622
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 92
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 042705
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.92.042705
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1429350