Flipped-state identification in a Rydberg wave-packet using a terahertz half-cycle pulse

Summary form only given. Optical pulse shaping and wave-packet holography have been used to store information in the phase of an atomic Rydberg wave-packet. We present a new method of retrieving this phase information by using a terahertz domain half-cycle pulse (HCP) to coherently redistribute the Rydberg population. We use programmed optical pulses to create radial wave-packets in a beam of atomic Cs centered at n = 26p with one state phase-reversed from the others. An impulse model for this atom-HCP interaction is employed to qualitatively explain this flipped-state amplification.