Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 15: Ultracold plasmas and Rydberg systems II (with A)

Q 15.5: Talk

Monday, March 17, 2014, 15:00–15:15, DO24 1.101

Observing the dynamics of dipole-mediated energy transport by interaction enhanced imaging — •Georg Günter, Hanna Schempp, Martin Robert-de-Saint-Vincent, Vladislav Gavryusev, Stephan Helmrich, Christoph S. Hofmann, Shannon Whitlock, and Matthias Weidemüller — Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 226, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

Electronically highly excited (Rydberg) atoms experience quantum-state changing interactions similar to Förster processes found in complex molecules, offering a model system to study the nature of dipole-mediated energy transport under the influence of a controlled environment. We demonstrate a non-destructive imaging method to monitor the migration of electronic excitations with high time and spatial resolution using electromagnetically induced transparency on a background gas acting as an amplifier[1]. The many-body dynamics is determined by the continuous spatial projection of the electronic quantum state under observation and features an emergent spatial scale of micrometer size induced by Rydberg-Rydberg interactions[2].

[1] G. Günter et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 013002 (2012)

[2] G. Günter et al., Science 342, 954 (2013)