This work involves a two-pronged approach to fundamental studies in atomic physics. In the first, the technique of recurrence spectroscopy will be combined with that of resonance fields to obtain new information about the crossover between quantum and classical physics. Particular attention will be paid to that portion of the motion that approaches chaos. The second effort is the precision determination of the Rydberg constant through measurement of transition frequencies among high Rydberg levels in the atom. By making measurements between Rydberg levels, QED and nuclear contributions to the energies are negligible, and the result represents an independent determination of this fundamental constant which can serve as a control for the more traditional approaches.
