Hanle Effect for Lifetime Determinations in the Soft X-Ray Regime

authored by: Moto Togawa, Jan Richter, Chintan Shah, Marc Botz, Joshua Nenninger, Jonas Danisch, Joschka Goes, Steffen Kühn, Pedro Amaro, Awad Mohamed, Yuki Amano, Stefano Orlando, Roberta Totani, Monica De Simone, Stephan Fritzsche, Thomas Pfeifer, Marcello Coreno, Andrey Surzhykov, José R.Crespo López-Urrutia
Abstract: By exciting a series of 1s2 S01→1snpP11 transitions in heliumlike nitrogen ions with linearly polarized monochromatic soft x rays at the Elettra facility, we found a change in the angular distribution of the fluorescence sensitive to the principal quantum number n. In particular it is observed that the ratio of emission in directions parallel and perpendicular to the polarization of incident radiation increases with higher n. We find this n dependence to be a manifestation of the Hanle effect, which served as a practical tool for lifetime determinations of optical transitions since its discovery in 1924. In contrast to traditional Hanle effect experiments, in which one varies the magnetic field and considers a particular excited state, we demonstrate a "soft x-ray Hanle effect"which arises in a static magnetic field but for a series of excited states. By comparing experimental data with theoretical predictions, we were able to determine lifetimes ranging from hundreds of femtoseconds to tens of picoseconds of the 1snpP11 levels, which find excellent agreement with atomic-structure calculations. We argue that dedicated soft x-ray measurements could yield lifetime data that are beyond current experimental reach and cannot yet be predicted with sufficient accuracy.
Organisation(s): Institute of Theoretical Physics
External Organisation(s): Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics
European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility GmbH (XFEL)
Heidelberg University
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt PTB
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA-GSFC)
Johns Hopkins University
NOVA University Lisbon
National Research Council Italy (CNR)
University of Camerino
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Sincrotrone Trieste
CNR Istituto Officina Dei Materiali (IOM)
Helmholtz Institute Jena
GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Technische Universität Braunschweig
Type: Article
Journal: Physical review letters
Volume: 133
No. of pages: 7
ISSN: 0031-9007
Publication date: 16.10.2024
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General Physics and Astronomy
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.163202 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{9a49864af200455bb534618eca2971a4,
title = "Hanle Effect for Lifetime Determinations in the Soft X-Ray Regime",
abstract = "By exciting a series of 1s2 S01→1snpP11 transitions in heliumlike nitrogen ions with linearly polarized monochromatic soft x rays at the Elettra facility, we found a change in the angular distribution of the fluorescence sensitive to the principal quantum number n. In particular it is observed that the ratio of emission in directions parallel and perpendicular to the polarization of incident radiation increases with higher n. We find this n dependence to be a manifestation of the Hanle effect, which served as a practical tool for lifetime determinations of optical transitions since its discovery in 1924. In contrast to traditional Hanle effect experiments, in which one varies the magnetic field and considers a particular excited state, we demonstrate a {"}soft x-ray Hanle effect{"}which arises in a static magnetic field but for a series of excited states. By comparing experimental data with theoretical predictions, we were able to determine lifetimes ranging from hundreds of femtoseconds to tens of picoseconds of the 1snpP11 levels, which find excellent agreement with atomic-structure calculations. We argue that dedicated soft x-ray measurements could yield lifetime data that are beyond current experimental reach and cannot yet be predicted with sufficient accuracy.",
author = "Moto Togawa and Jan Richter and Chintan Shah and Marc Botz and Joshua Nenninger and Jonas Danisch and Joschka Goes and Steffen K{\"u}hn and Pedro Amaro and Awad Mohamed and Yuki Amano and Stefano Orlando and Roberta Totani and {De Simone}, Monica and Stephan Fritzsche and Thomas Pfeifer and Marcello Coreno and Andrey Surzhykov and L{\'o}pez-Urrutia, {Jos{\'e} R.Crespo}",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the {"}https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/{"}Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.",
year = "2024",
month = oct,
day = "16",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.163202",
language = "English",
volume = "133",
journal = "Physical review letters",
issn = "0031-9007",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "16",
}