Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 64: Poster Quantengase

Q 64.1: Poster

Thursday, March 22, 2007, 16:30–18:30, Poster C

A BEC Setup for Rydberg Excitation — •Björn Butscher, Rolf Heidemann, Vera Bendkowsky, Ulrich Raitzsch, Helmar Bender, Robert Löw, and Tilman Pfau — Universität Stuttgart, 5. Physikalisches Institut,

We present our versatile experimental setup which allows us to excite Rubidium atoms to Rydberg states in thermal clouds as well as in Bose-Einstein condesates produced in a Ioffe-Pritchard-type magnetic trap. The setup is equipped with additional tools to control the internal and external atomic degrees of freedom in a large parameter space.

For the two photon excitation into Rydberg state we employ a diode laser setup which is stabilized to a combined two photon linewidth below 1.5 MHz. Besides a radio frequency setup to perform evaporative cooling, we use an ultra stable microwave source at 6.8 GHz for cooling purposes as well as to control the atomic density distribution. Additionally, we installed eight electric field-plates inside the vacuum chamber close to the trapped atoms, allowing to apply complex electric field distributions to the atoms. This can be utilized to generate spatially dependent Stark shifts or to field ionize Rydberg atoms state selectively. The emerging ions and electrons can be detected simultaneously by two micro-channel plates.

We also present our experimental results on collective coherent Rydberg excitation in a thermal cloud as well as first measurements on Rydberg excitation in a BEC.