Düsseldorf 2007 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 7: Ultracold Plasmas and Rydberg Dynamics (jointly with Q)

A 7.3: Vortrag

Dienstag, 20. März 2007, 11:30–11:45, 5M

Observation of Rabi cycles and coupling to continuum states in the excitation of a mesoscopic cloud of cold atoms to Rydberg levels — •Markus Reetz-Lamour, Thomas Amthor, Johannes Deiglmayr, Sebastian Westermann, Janne Denskat, and Matthias Weidemüler — Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 3, D-79104 Freiburg

Ultracold Rydberg gases are a possible candidate for quantum information processing combining the coherence properties of ground state atoms with strong Rydberg-Rydberg interaction for fast quantum gates [1]. While the coherent character of Rydberg-Rydberg interaction has been confirmed in a number of experiments [2], the realization of q-bits itself turned out to be rather challenging.

We will present the experimental ingredients to drive Rabi cycles between the electronic ground states and Rydberg states in a mesoscopic cloud of ∼100 laser-cooled ⁸⁷Rb atoms, which is the essential ingredient for constructing qbits with Rydberg atoms. We will also show how this coherent excitation can be used to study coupling to a quasi-continuous large subset of Rydberg states. This leads to effects very similar to Fano resonances.

[1] Jaksch et al., PRL 85, 2208 (2000), Lukin et al., PRL 87, 037901 (2001)

[2] E.g. Anderson et al., PRA 65, 063404 (2002), Westermann et al., EPJ D 40, 37 (2006)