Extracting Classical Trajectories from Atomic Spectra

Abstract

We describe how to reconstruct individual classical trajectories from spectroscopic data. The ac dipole moment of a trajectory can be found from the effect of an oscillating field on the spectrum. The inverse Fourier transform of such data yields the component of the electron trajectory along the direction of the oscillating field. We demonstrate the method by experimentally extracting $z(t)$ for two electron trajectories that influence the Stark spectrum of Rydberg lithium. Within the experimental resolution, the reconstructed orbits agree well with classical predictions.