Berlin 2014 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 7: Ultracold plasmas and Rydberg systems I (with A)
Q 7.1: Talk
Monday, March 17, 2014, 10:30–10:45, DO24 1.101
Full counting statistics of laser excited Rydberg aggregates in a one-dimensional geometry — •Hanna Schempp1, Georg Günter1, Martin Robert-de-Saint-Vincent1, Christoph S. Hofmann1, David Breyel2, Andreas Komnik2, David Schönleber3, Martin Gärttner3, Jörg Evers3, Shannon Whitlock1, and Matthias Weidemüller1 — 1Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 226, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany — 2Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 16, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany — 3Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
We experimentally study the full counting statistics of few-body Rydberg aggregates excited from a quasi-one-dimensional atomic gas [1]. We measure asymmetric excitation spectra and increased second and third order statistical moments of the Rydberg number distribution, from which we determine the average aggregate size. Estimating rates for different excitation processes we conclude that the aggregates grow sequentially around an initial grain. Direct comparison with numerical simulations confirms this conclusion and reveals the presence of liquid-like spatial correlations. Our findings demonstrate the importance of dephasing in strongly correlated Rydberg gases and introduce a way to study spatial correlations in interacting many-body quantum systems without imaging.
[1] H. Schempp et al., accepted for Phys.Rev.Lett., arXiv:1308.0264 (2013)