Localizing high-lying Rydberg wave packets with two-color laser fields

Abstract

We demonstrate control over the localization of high-lying Rydberg wave packets in argon atoms with phase-locked orthogonally polarized two-color (OTC) laser fields. With a reaction microscope, we measured ionization signals of high-lying Rydberg states induced by a weak dc field and black-body radiation as a function of the relative phase between the two-color fields. We find that the dc-field ionization yields of high-lying Rydberg argon atoms oscillate with the relative two-color phase with a period of $2\pi$ while the photoionization signal by black-body radiation shows a period of $\pi$. These observations are a clear signature of the asymmetric localization of electrons recaptured into high-lying Rydberg states after conclusion of the laser pulse and are supported by a semiclassical simulation of argon-OTC laser interaction. Our findings thus open an effective pathway to control the localization of high-lying Rydberg wave packets.