Interaction of a Laguerre-Gaussian beam with Rydberg atoms

Abstract

Transfer mechanism of orbital angular moment(OAM) of light to trapped ground-state atoms under paraxial approximation is well known. Here we show how optical OAM of a Laguerre-Gaussian(LG) beam under paraxial approximation can be transferred to trapped Rydberg atoms. Optical OAM is shown to be transferable to a Rydberg electronic state in dipole transition. The Gaussian part of the profile of the LG beam, which is generally neglected , is found to have an important effect on the OAM transfer to the Rydberg atoms. Numerical calculations are calculated based on this theory for Rubidium Rydberg atoms trapped in a harmonic potential. Our results exhibit the mixing of final states of different parities.