Thermal Casimir-Polder shifts in Rydberg atoms near metallic surfaces

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermal Casimir-Polder effects on Rydberg atoms near metallic surfaces, highlighting the significance of quadrupole corrections and providing scaling laws for potential and decay rates.

Contribution

It presents a detailed analysis of CP potential and transition rates for Rydberg atoms near metal surfaces at finite temperature, including explicit scaling laws and the importance of quadrupole effects.

Findings

Quadrupole correction becomes significant near the surface and increases with quantum number n.

The dominant contribution to CP potential and decay rates comes from the longest wavelength transition.

The CP potential is independent of temperature at close distances.

Abstract

The Casimir-Polder (CP) potential and transition rates of a Rydberg atom above a plane metal surface at finite temperature are discussed. As an example, the CP potential and transition rates of a rubidium atom above a copper surface at room temperature is computed. Close to the surface we show that the quadrupole correction to the force is significant and increases with increasing principal quantum number n. For both the CP potential and decay rates one finds that the dominant contribution comes from the longest wavelength transition and the potential is independent of temperature. We provide explicit scaling laws for potential and decay rates as functions of atom-surface distance and principal quantum number of the initial Rydberg state.