Steering Quantum States Towards Classical Bohr-Like Orbits

Abstract

This article furnishes an introduction to the properties of time-dependent electronic wavefunctions in atoms and to physics at the interface between the quantum and classical worlds. We describe how, almost 100 years after the introduction of the Bohr model of the atom, it is now possible using pulsed electric fields to create in the laboratory localized wavepackets in high-n (n ~ 300) Rydberg atoms that travel in near-circular “Bohr-like” orbits mimicking the behavior of a classical electron. The control protocols employed are explained with the aid of quantum and classical dynamics. Remarkably, while many aspects of the underlying behavior can be described using classical arguments, even at n ~ 300 purely quantum effects such as revivals can be seen.