ISSN:
1434-6079
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
Abstract. The observation of excitation of 2p states in a collimated 2s hydrogen beam passing through a wide metal slit with no direct contacts or electric field applied (Sokolov effect) up to now has had no reasonable explanation. A solution presented in this paper is formulated within the standard quantum-mechanical framework with a consecutive wave packet treatment of the atomic center-of-mass wave function. It is found that a very weak interaction of the beam diffraction halo with the slit, though negligible for center-of-mass motion, coherently affects the intrinsic state of an atom in the beam and efficiently induces $2s\rightarrow 2p$ transitions. High sensitivity of this interference phenomena may be used to measure transverse coherence length of the beam.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2003-00207-5
