Observing angular precession of a Rydberg wave packet due to spin-orbit coupling by orthogonally polarized weak half-cycle pulses

Abstract

We investigate the response of an $np$ Rydberg wave packet to orthogonally polarized weak half-cycle pulses (HCPs) over the course of its field-free evolution. The population redistribution from $p$ to $s$ states is highly sensitive to the polarization of the HCP and changes with the precession of the electron orbits due to the spin-orbit coupling. We obtain the selection rules and give an intuitive classical interpretation of angular momentum redistribution by a HCP.