Frankfurt 2006 – scientific programme

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A: Atomphysik

A 8: Poster I: Pr
äzisionsspektroskopie

A 8.5: Poster

Tuesday, March 14, 2006, 16:30–18:30, Labsaal

Experiments with an ultracold gas of Rydberg atoms — •J. Denskat¹, M. Reetz-Lamour¹, T. Amthor¹, A.L. de Oliveira^2,3, S. Westermann¹, J. Deiglmayr¹, and M. Weidemüller¹ — ¹Physikalisches Institut Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 3, 79104 Freiburg — ²Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, Departamento de Física, Joinville, SC 89223-100, Brazil — ³Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Física, São Carlos, SP 13560-970, Brazil

Atoms in highly excited states (Rydberg atoms) are far more strongly influenced by external fields than ground state atoms: The electric polarizability scales with the principal quantum number n as n⁷, the van-der-Waals interaction as n¹¹ and the size of the electronic wavefunction as n². Rydberg atoms in an ultracold gas (i.e. the initial motion can be ignored on the relevant timescales given by the Rydberg lifetime, typically a few 10µs), therefore constitute a unique tool to study controlled (many-body) interactions.
In our experiment we cool ⁸⁷Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap and excite the atomic cloud into Rydberg states with two photons (780nm, 480nm) from continuous wave lasers. Recent measurements focussed on the coherent excitation (efficiency up to 90%) [1] and the dynamics of resonant energy transfer processes [2]. The experimental details and results will be presented.

[1] Deiglmayr et al., OptComm subm.

[2] Westermann et al., EPJD subm.