NEW SCHEME FOR PRODUCING CIRCULAR ORBITAL STATES IN COMBINED RF AND STATIC FIELDS

We propose to prepare oriented circular Rydberg states in atoms (i.e. states where one valence electron has spherical quantum numbers: m = l = n - 1 >> 1) by combining the specific advantages of the adiabatic crossed-field method, recently tested in alkali and alkaline earth atoms, and of the adiabatic RF field method whose principle was described in 1986. The formal equivalence of the two methods is pointed out. Their association is made possible by considering the dynamical symmetry of the Coulomb potential. In order to illustrate the new process, calculations have been performed for the manifold n = 5 of hydrogen.