Intramanifold level mixing by time-dependent electric fields: Multilevel Landau-Zener effect

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Abstract
The mixing of substates of an isolated Rydberg manifold (constant n,m) is studied using time-evolution matrices U(t,t0). Coherent mixing is effected by a linearly ramped electric field, F(t)=Ḟt. The spherical l basis, diabatic (hydrogenic) p basis, and adiabatic (nonhydrogenic) q basis are considered. In the linear Stark regime, the diabatic levels are coupled by F(t) through the atomic core, parametrized by quantum defects. The resulting adiabatic levels EqF in this model group into a submanifold degenerate at F=0 plus shifted levels split off from the adiabatic manifold. Analytical expressions for the q levels Eqτ and their coupling Γqq′τ are derived as a function of rescaled field or time τ. The time evolution of the levels' populations is studied first for the two-level case—the usual Landau-Zener effect (LZE)—which is generalized to a multilevel Landau-Zener effect (MLZE) for any n manifold. The matrices U(t,t0) are constructed in the Riemann product representation, including Magnus corrections up to fourth order. The probability Pq→q′(Vl) of making a transition from state q to q′ upon a one-way pass across the manifold depends on a single parameter Vl=[2μl2/(3Ḟn9)]1/2 (when one μl≠0). Numerical results for l=m=0 indicate that either diabatic (p→p′=p) or adiabatic (q→q′=q) transitions always predominate, no matter what the ramp rate Ḟ. Strong evidence supports the conjecture that outer diabatic transitions between edge states of a manifold obey Pndiab(V)=exp(-βnπV2) for l=m=0, with βn=1 for n=2 (the LZE) and βn≈lnn for n≫2 (the MLZE), and that a similar analytical result holds for arbitrary {μl} and m.