Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 12: Ultra-cold plasmas and Rydberg systems I (with Q)
A 12.7: Talk
Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 12:30–12:45, C/kHS
Aggregation of Rydberg excitations in a dense thermal vapor cell — •Alban Urvoy1, Fabian Ripka1, Igor Lesanovsky2, Tilman Pfau1, and Robert Löw1 — 15. Physikalisches Institut , Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70550 Stuttgart Germany — 2School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
Rydberg atoms in dense gases are of growing interest, due to the rich many-body physics enabled by the strong interactions. In particular, the effect of Rydberg aggregation, which relies on off-resonant excitation to spatially correlated ensembles of atoms, is currently studied [1,2] as it exhibits interesting correlations, as e.g. in soft-matter systems [3].
We present our experimental results on the excitation dynamics of such Rydberg aggregates in a vapor cell at room temperature [4]. The scaling laws for the characteristic timescale of the excitation process are consistent with a model based on an effective Master equation. Moreover we show that our measurements are very sensitive to the interaction potentials. We are able to observe the influence dipole-quadrupole interactions.
We will also discuss the use of this sensitivity to probe various interactions of the Rydberg atoms.
[1] H. Schempp et al., PRL 112, 013002 (2014)
[2] N. Malossi et al., PRL 113, 023006 (2014)
[3] I. Lesanovsky and J.P. Garrahan, PRA 90, 011603(R) (2014)
[4] A. Urvoy et al., arXiv:1408.0039 [physics.atom-ph] (2014)