Dynamical vs. Anderson localization

Strongly driven one electron Rydberg atoms exhibit strongly chaotic classical dynamics beyond a critical value of the driving field amplitude. In a certain regime of driving field frequencies, the real (quantum) atom exhibits a vanishing ionization yield, whereas a classical picture predicts efficient diffusive phase space transport towards the ionization threshold, i.e., efficient chaotic ionization. This quantum suppression of classically diffusive ionization has been put into parallel with Anderson localization of electronic tansport in disordered solid state samples, and was baptized ``dynamical localization'' such as to stress its dynamical (rather than disorder-induced) origin. So far, however, this analogy remained somewhat qualitative in nature, and it remained unclear whether an Anderson like scenario was the real cause of dynamical localization effects. With our approximation free treatment of Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen and of alkali atoms, we strive for a quantitative foundation of this analogy.

Principal Investigators: Celsus Bouri and Andreas Buchleitner
Former Collaborator: Artem Dudarev, Andreas Krug
Collaboration with: Javier Madroñero, Italo Guarneri, Alexej Schelle, Sandro Wimberger and Jakub Zakrzewski

Publications

Rubidium Rydberg atoms in bichromatic microwave fields, A. Buchleitner, L. Sirko and H. Walther, Europhys. Lett. 16, 35 (1991)

Dynamical localization in the microwave interaction of Rydberg atoms: The influence of noise, R. Bluemel, A. Buchleitner, R. Graham, L. Sirko, U. Smilansky, H. Walther, Phys. Rev. A 44, 4521 (1991)

Experimental study of quantum and classical limits in the microwave ionization of rubidium Rydberg states, M. Arndt, A. Buchleitner, R. N. Mantegna, and H. Walther, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 2435 (1991)

Dynamical localization in more than one dimension, A. Buchleitner and D. Delande, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 33 (1993)

Quantum dynamics of a circular Rydberg state in a microwave field, A. Buchleitner and D. Delande, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 3633 (1993)

Classical and quantum chaos in atomic systems, D. Delande and A. Buchleitner, Adv. At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 34, 85 (1994)

Spectral aspects of the microwave ionization of atomic Rydberg states, A. Buchleitner and D. Delande, Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 5, 1125 (1995)

Multiple time scales in the microwave ionization of Rydberg atoms, A. Buchleitner, D. Delande, J. Zakrzewski, and R. N. Mantegna, M. Arndt, H. Walther, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 3818 (1995)

From coherent to noise-induced microwave ionization of Rydberg atoms, O. Benson, A. Buchleitner, G. Raithel and M. Arndt, R. N. Mantegna, H. Walther, Phys. Rev. A 51, 4862 (1995)

Secular motion of three-dimensional Rydberg states in a microwave field, A. Buchleitner and D. Delande, Phys. Rev. A 55, R1585 (1997)

Conductance fluctuations in microwave-driven Rydberg atoms, A. Buchleitner, I. Guarneri, and J. Zakrzewski, Europhys. Lett. 44, 162 (1998)

Signatures of Anderson localization in the ionization rates of periodically driven Rydberg states, S. Wimberger and A. Buchleitner, J. Phys. A 34, 7181 (2001)

Chaotic ionization of nonhydrogenic alkali Rydberg states, A. Krug and A. Buchleitner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3538 (2001)

Microwave ionization of alkali-metal Rydberg states in a realistic numerical experiment, A. Krug and A. Buchleitner, Phys. Rev. A 66, 053416 (2002)

Decay Rates and Survival Probabilities in Open Quantum Systems, S. Wimberger, A. Krug, and A. Buchleitner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 263601 (2002)

Decay, interference and chaos: How simple atoms mimic disorder, A. Krug, S. Wimberger and A. Buchleitner, Eur. Phys. J. D 26, 21 (2003)

Universal ionization threshold for strongly driven Rydberg states, A. Krug and A. Buchleitner, Phys. Rev. A 72, 061402(R) (2005)