Ramsey fringes in atomic Rydberg wave packets

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Abstract
We examine the dynamics of the wave function of a hydrogen Rydberg electron for the case in which the Rydberg states are created by two temporally separated laser pulses. We study the influence of the phase difference between the two pulses. For instance, the electron can make one orbit as a Rydberg wave packet created by the first laser pulse, after which it is sent back to the ground state by the second pulse. The time dependence of the wave packet created by the first pulse can be probed by examination of the total population after the two-pulse sequence. The influence of the relative phase of the two pulses on the total population can be seen as Ramsey fringes. We describe a scheme of wave-packet detection based on this effect.