On the control of the production of hydrogen atom 2s-2p resonance hybrids through the use of competitive one- and two-photon transitions from the ground state

The control of the formation of dipolar hydrogen atom 2s-2p hybrid states, through varying the relative phase delta of two lasers inducing simultaneous one- and two-photon transitions from the ground state, is discussed by using time-dependent perturbation theory. Numerical examples are presented that illustrate how the populations of the hybrid states can be controlled by varying delta. The perturbative calculations are augmented by various exact finite basis set, and full split operator/fast Fourier transform, solutions to the time-dependent wave equation for the problem. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)30928-X].