G. Weber,
H. Bräuning,
A. Surzhykov,
C. Brandau,
S. Fritzsche,
S. Geyer,
S. Hagmann,
S. Hess,
C. Kozhuharov,
R. Märtin,
N. Petridis,
R. Reuschl,
U. Spillmann,
S. Trotsenko,
D. F. A. Winters,
and T. Stöhlker
Direct Determination of the Magnetic Quadrupole Contribution to the Lyman-alpha(1) Transition in a Hydrogenlike Ion
Phys. Rev. Lett., 105 :243002 (December 2010)
Direct Determination of the Magnetic Quadrupole Contribution to the Lyman-alpha(1) Transition in a Hydrogenlike Ion
Phys. Rev. Lett., 105 :243002 (December 2010)
Abstract:
We report the observation of an interference between the electric dipole (E1) and the magnetic quadrupole (M2) amplitudes for the linear polarization of the Ly-alpha(1) (2p(3/2) -> 1s(1/2)) radiation of hydrogenlike uranium. This multipole mixing arises from the coupling of the ion to different multipole components of the radiation field. Our observation indicates a significant depolarization of the Ly-alpha(1) radiation due to the E1-M2 amplitude mixing. It proves that a combined measurement of the linear polarization and of the angular distribution enables a very precise determination of the ratio of the E1 and the M2 transition amplitudes and the corresponding transition rates without any assumptions concerning the population mechanism for the 2p(3/2) state.