Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 51: Ultra-cold atoms, ions and BEC III

Q 51.4: Talk

Thursday, March 15, 2012, 14:45–15:00, V47.02

Electronically excited cold ion crystals — •Weibin Li and Igor Lesanovsky — School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

The laser excitation of an ion crystal to high lying and long-lived electronic states is a genuine many-body process even if in fact only a single ion is excited. This is a direct manifestation of the strong coupling between internal and external dynamics and becomes most apparent in the vicinity of a structural phase transition. Here we show that utilizing highly excited states offers a new approach to the coherent manipulation of ion crystals. This opens up a new route towards the creation of non-classical motional states in a Paul trap and permits the study of quantum phenomena that rely on a strong coupling between electronic and vibrational dynamics.