Electric Field Controlled, Pulsed Autoionization in Two Electron Wave Packets

In this paper, control of the evolution of a two electron wave packet through the application of a static electric field is demonstrated. Specifically, application of a small electric field is used to produce pulsed autoionization events, the timing of which can be controlled on a picosecond time scale. The technique is demonstrated by exciting calcium atoms using a short-pulsed laser to the 4p3/219d doubly excited state, which is energy degenerate with the 4p1/2nk stark states. Evolution of the resultant wave packet is monitored through the application of a second short laser pulse, which stimulates the atoms to emit a photon producing singly excited Rydberg states which are detected using field ionization

Shakeoff Measurement of the L = 3 States of Barium

Isolated core excitation was used to produce low-energy continuum electrons in the l = 3 angular momentum state of barium. Data were taken over a region of energy that coincided with the energy of the 6p3/2nf doubly excited states. Analysis of the data using multichannel quantum defect theory allowed the measurement of the widths of the 6p3/2nf states and the energy-dependent phase of the continuum electronic wave functions due to interaction with the doubly excited states. The phase of the continuum electrons is shown to vary continuously with energy, due to the anomalously broad widths of the double excited states

Short-pulse Laser-Induced Stabilization of Autoionizing States

Atoms in doubly excited states above the first ionization limit can decay via autoionization in which an electron is emitted leaving an ion, or by photoemission which leaves the atom in a singly excited state. In this paper, it is demonstrated that interaction between the atoms and a laser pulse that is short compared to the autoionization lifetime can lead to large enhancement of the photoemission process by stimulating the atoms to emit a photon. Since the resultant singly excited atoms do not autoionize, this process can be viewed as an enhancement of the stabilization of the doubly excited atoms against autoionization. A simple theoretical model is outlined that shows good agreement with the experimental results

Direct Measurement of Oscillations between Degenerate Two-Electron Bound-State Configurations in a Rapidly Autoionizing System

In this paper we report a direct observation of the oscillation between bound-state configurations in a rapidly autoionizing system. Calcium atoms were excited to a pure 4p3/2nd two-electron configuration using a 500-fsec laser pulse. The initial 4p3/2nd doubly excited state is energy degenerate with the 4p1/2n\u27d states and several continuum channels. Because of the short-pulse excitation, the initial state of the atom is not an energy eigenstate, but a nonstationary wave packet. As a result, oscillations between the two bound configurations were produced. These oscillations were measured by scanning the timing of a second 500-fsec laser pulse tuned to drive the 4p1/2n\u27d ionic state back down to the 4sn\u27d singly excited configuration, which was subsequently detected using selective field ionization. A simple theoretical model was used to model the experimental results and produced good agreement with the data

Laser-Induced Stabilization of Autoionizing States

Stabilization of autoionizing states of barium by laser-induced, stimulated emission of light is demonstrated. Relative to purely flourescent stabilization, the data clearly show an enhancement of the stabilization process for laser pulses short compared to the flourescent lifetime of the autoionizing states. Shakeup spectra in which the principal quantum number of both electrons changes during the stimulated emission process are also clearly demonstrated

Dynamics of Social Balance on Networks

We study the evolution of social networks that contain both friendly and unfriendly pairwise links between individual nodes. The network is endowed with dynamics in which the sense of a link in an imbalanced triad--a triangular loop with 1 or 3 unfriendly links--is reversed to make the triad balanced. With this dynamics, an infinite network undergoes a dynamic phase transition from a steady state to "paradise"--all links are friendly--as the propensity p for friendly links in an update event passes through 1/2. A finite network always falls into a socially-balanced absorbing state where no imbalanced triads remain. If the additional constraint that the number of imbalanced triads in the network does not increase in an update is imposed, then the network quickly reaches a balanced final state.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 2-column revtex4 forma