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Controlling Positronium Annihilation with Electric Fields

Alonso, AM; Cooper, BS; Deller, A; Hogan, SD; Cassidy, DB; (2015) Controlling Positronium Annihilation with Electric Fields. Physical Review Letters , 115 (18) , Article 183401. 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.183401. Green open access

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Abstract

We show that the annihilation dynamics of excited positronium (Ps) atoms can be controlled using parallel electric and magnetic fields. To achieve this, Ps atoms were optically excited to n ¼ 2 sublevels in fields that were adjusted to control the amount of short-lived and long-lived character of the resulting mixed states. Inclusion of the former offers a practical approach to detection via annihilation radiation, whereas the increased lifetimes due to the latter can be exploited to optimize resonance-enhanced two-photon excitation processes (e.g., 13S → 23P → nS=nD), either by minimizing losses through intermediate state decay, or by making it possible to separate the excitation laser pulses in time. In addition, photoexcitation of mixed states with a 23S1 component represents an efficient route to producing long-lived pure 23S1 atoms via single-photon excitation.

Type: Article
Title: Controlling Positronium Annihilation with Electric Fields
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.183401
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.183401
Language: English
Additional information: © 2015 American Physical Society
Keywords: Science & Technology, Physical Sciences, Physics, Multidisciplinary, Physics, FIRST EXCITED-STATE, 1S-2S TRANSITION, MAGNETIC-FIELDS, METAL-SURFACES, LASER FIELDS, EXCITATION, FREQUENCY, HYDROGEN, PS, SPECTROSCOPY
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1488646
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