Suppression of angular-momentum mixing in precision solutions of the Schrödinger equation for photoexcitation of Rydberg states

Numerical integration of the Schrödinger equation for the resonant single-photon excitation from the 1s to 10p state in atomic hydrogen has been used to produce solutions converged to a precision of a few parts per million. At all intensities investigated (in the range 10–100 TW/cm²), the population in the states having angular momentum higher than l = 1 after a narrowband (500 fs) laser pulse are found to be neglible. This shows that off-resonant states can effectively suppress Raman-like transitions to degenerate states of higher angular momentum. Instead of such mixing, strong Rabi-like oscillations between 1s and the np Rydberg series are observed.