Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 20: SYRA: Ultracold Rydberg Atoms and Molecules 1
Q 20.3: Talk
Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 11:30–11:45, V47.01
Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency in dense ultracold gases — •Christoph S. Hofmann, Georg Günter, Hanna Schempp, Henning Labuhn, Martin Robert-de-Saint-Vincent, Shannon Whitlock, and Matthias Weidemüller — Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 12, 69120 Heidelberg
We report on our latest experimental results on Ryberg electromagnetically induced transparency
performed in a regime which is governed by large Rydberg-induced nonlinearities. In these
experiments the nonlinear optical response of a strongly interacting Rydberg gas is probed by means
of a simple CCD camera. This work is a precursor experiment for realising direct optical images of
Rydberg atoms [1]. The experiments are performed in our new apparatus which allows us
to realise Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of 87Rb for studies on Rydberg atoms excited
from dense atomic gases. Starting with a high flux 2D-MOT, we efficiently load a MOT in order to
pre-cool and efficiently transfer atoms into a crossed optical dipole trap. The latter acts as a
reservoir that is superimposed with a dimple trap, in which we evaporatively cool the atoms to reach
BEC. This simple and robust scheme allows us to perform experiments with short overall cycle
times of only ∼ 4.5 s.
[1] G. Günter et al., arXiv:1106.5443v1 (2011) to be published in PRL