Hydrogen spectroscopy with a Lamb-shift polarimeter An alternative approach towards anti-hydrogen spectroscopy experiments

• Published in: The European physical journal. D, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 27 - 32
• Main Authors: Westig, M. P., Engels, R., Grigoryev, K., Mikirtytchiants, M., Rathmann, F., Paetz gen. Schieck, H., Schug, G., Vasilyev, A., Ströher, H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 2010; EDP Sciences
• Subjects: Applications of Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos Theory; Atomic; Atomic Physics; Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Physical Chemistry; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Information Technology; Quantum Physics; Spectroscopy/Spectrometry; Spintronics; Atomic Beam; Dipole Transition; Transition Unit; Magnetic Dipole Transition; Electric Dipole Transition
• ISSN: 1434-6060; 1434-6079
• DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2010-00016-9

A Lamb-shift polarimeter, which has been built for a fast determination of the polarization of protons and deuterons of an atomic-beam source and which is frequently used in the ANKE experiment at COSY-Jülich, is shown to be an excellent device for atomic-spectroscopy measurements of metastable hydrogen isotopes. It is demonstrated that magnetic and electric dipole transitions in hydrogen can be measured as a function of the external magnetic field, giving access to the full Breit-Rabi diagram for the 2 2 S 1/2 and the 2 2 P 1/2 states. This will allow the study of hyperfine structure, g factors and the classical Lamb shift. Although the data are not yet competitive with state-of-the-art measurements, the potential of the method is enormous, including a possible application to anti-hydrogen spectroscopy.