A precision millimeter-wave measurement of the Rydberg frequency

The Rydberg frequency, cR[infinity], sets the frequency scale for the spectrum of hydrogen atoms. From a frequency measurement of one transition in hydrogen, cR[infinity] can be extracted and the frequency of any other transition can be predicted, given that the reduced-mass, relativistic, QED, and proton structure corrections can be computed to the desired accuracy. Recent advances in optical frequency techniques applied to transitions involving low-lying states of hydrogen have decreased the uncertainty in cR[infinity], to 7.6 x 10⁻¹². This thesis presents our measurement of cR[infinity] using millimeter-wave transitions between high-lying "circular Rydberg" states of atomic hydrogen with a principle quantum number, n, between 27 and 30. This measurement provides an independent check, in a different regime, of the optical measurements. Our measurement, cR[infinity] = 3 289 841 960 306(69) kHz with an uncertainty of 2.1 x 10⁻¹¹, is consistent with the CODATA 98 recommended value.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• De Vries, Joel Christopher, 1971-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Daniel Kleppner.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8292

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/8292