Stuttgart 2012 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 41: Poster: Ultra-cold plasmas and Rydberg systems

A 41.7: Poster

Donnerstag, 15. März 2012, 16:30–19:00, Poster.V

Strong plasma correlations via Rydberg dipole blockade — •Georg Bannasch and Thomas Pohl — Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden

One major challenge in ultracold plasmas research is the realization of strong coupling conditions. Since ultracold plasmas are typically created by photoionization of spatially uncorrelated ultracold atoms, the subsequent plasma relaxation leads to heating and, thus, limits the strength of achievable correlations.

Here we propose a double-pulse ionization scheme, consisting of an excitation laser pulse and an additional microwave field. Exploiting the dipole blockade between highly excited Rydberg atoms, this "pump-probe" type sequence produces strongly correlated ions by reducing disorder-induced heating of the system. On the other hand, the resulting plasma coupling strength allows to easily probe the degree of correlation in the Rydberg blocked atomic system. We thoroughly study the involved steps to discuss the feasibility of our approach and show universal scaling behavior of the achievable plasma coupling strength.