CREATING AND DETECTING SHAPED RYDBERG WAVE-PACKETS

Inherently quantum mechanical, transient nanostructures with dynamics on a picosecond time scale can be produced by controlling the quantum dynamics of Rydberg electrons. Ultrashort, tailored light pulses are u sed to build structures in position and/or momentum space from the wav e function of an electron. The optimal laser pulses required to make t hese structures can be computed and synthesized in the laboratory. As an example, we present a structure consisting of five peaks which acts as a time-dependent grating and can be detected via ultrafast extreme ultraviolet diffraction.