Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 48: Quantum Gases: Effects of Interactions

Q 48.5: Talk

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 11:30–11:45, SCH 251

Towards coherent control of collisions in metastable neon — •Jan Schütz, Alexander Martin, Thomas Feldker, Holger John, and Gerhard Birkl — Institut für Angewandte Physik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Schlossgartenstraße 7, 64289 Darmstadt

We investigate the collisional interactions of laser cooled, metastable neon (Ne*). The most remarkable feature of Ne* is its high internal energy. Since the internal energy exceeds half of the ionization energy it enables ionizing collisions, namely Penning and associative ionization. The resulting ions as well as Ne* can be detected with high efficiency and accurate time resolution using electron multipliers. This enables us to gain a close insight into collisional interactions.

We are exploring a method to manipulate the ionization cross-sections by preparing the atoms in superposition states of ³P₂ Zeeman sublevels. Due to the interference of different collision channels this is proposed to modify the cross-sections of Penning and associative ionization for certain superpositions. We prepare the desired superposition states using radio frequency pulses in combination with the AC Stark shift of a laser. We report on the status of the experiment.