Laser spectroscopy of highly excited hydrogen atoms in electric and magnetic fields

The first part of the paper provides a review of systematic studies carried out in our laboratory on the Stark effect of highly excited H-atoms around the ionization threshold. Excitation is performed from individual Stark sublevels in the H(n = 2) state with π and O polarized laser radiation, resulting in eight essentially different ionization spectra. The experimental results fully agree with theory.