Engineering Rydberg Wavepackets Using a Chirped Half-Cycle Pulse Train*

A protocol for driving Rydberg atoms to a narrow band of targeted final n states with the aid of a chirped train of half-cycle pulses (HCPs) is described. A localized wavepacket can be generated and maintained by a periodic driving force. The dynamics of such a wavepacket can be manipulated almost as easily and as freely as the dynamics of a single classical particle. This is demonstrated experimentally by exciting potassium atoms to the lowest-lying quasi-one-dimensional (quasi 1-D) states in the n = 350 Stark manifold and transporting them to a narrow range ($\Delta $n$\sim \pm $20) of higher-n states centered on values of n of up to n $\sim $ 670. The protocol is remarkably efficient, with over 90{\%} of the parent atoms surviving the HCP sequence in strongly-polarized quasi-1D states.