Chaotic ionization of non-classical alkali Rydberg states—computational physics beats experiment

Abstract

We report on a novel numerical treatment of highly excited alkali Rydberg states strongly driven by a coherent microwave field. Our approach establishes particularly clean experimental conditions which remain to be realized by the traditional experimentalist in the laboratory. First results obtained on the largest currently available parallel supercomputers resolve a long-standing problem in the theoretical analysis of the ionization process of nonhydrogenic alkali Rydberg states.