Abstract

Antihydrogen atoms are produced at CERN in highly excited Rydberg states. However, precision measurements require anti-atoms in ground state. Whereas experiments currently rely on spontaneous emission only, simulations have shown that THz light can be used to stimulate the decay towards ground state and thus increase the number of anti-atoms available for measurements. We review different possibilities at hand to generate light in the THz range required for the purpose of stimulated deexcitation. We demonstrate the effect of a blackbody type light source, which however presents drawbacks for this application including strong photoionization. Further, we report on the first THz transitions in a beam of Rydberg caesium atoms induced by photomixers and conclude with the implications of the results for the antihydrogen case.

Graphic abstract

中文翻译：

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雷德堡铯原子中诱导的太赫兹跃迁用于反氢实验

摘要

抗氢原子在CERN产生于高激发的里德堡态。但是，精确测量需要基态的防原子。尽管目前的实验仅依赖于自发发射，但模拟表明，太赫兹光可用于刺激向基态的衰变，从而增加可用于测量的抗原子数。我们回顾了产生激发去激光所需的太赫兹范围内的光的各种可能性。我们展示了黑体型光源的效果，但是，它为这种应用带来了包括强光电离的缺点。此外，我们报告了由光混合器诱导的雷德堡铯原子束中的第一个THz跃迁，并得出了结论对反氢情况的影响。

图形摘要