Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 41: Ultracold Plasmas and Rydberg systems III (joint session A/Q)
Q 41.3: Talk
Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 14:30–14:45, K 0.011
Rydberg molecules for ion-atom scattering in the ultracold regime — •Thomas Schmid1, Christian Veit1, Nicolas Zuber1, Thomas Dieterle1, Christian Tomschitz1, Robert Löw1, Michal Tarana2, Michal Tomza3, and Tilman Pfau1 — 15. Physikalisches Institut & Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology, Universität Stuttgart, Germany — 2J. Heyrovskzý Institute of Physical Chemistry of the ASCR, Prague, Czech Republic — 3Centre of New Technologies & Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Poland
We propose a novel experimental method to extend the investigation of ion-atom collisions from the so far studied cold regime to the unexplored ultracold regime [1]. Key aspect of this method is the use of Rydberg molecules to initialize the ultracold ion-atom scattering event. We exemplify the proposed method with the lithium ion-atom system, for which we present simulations of how the initial Rydberg molecule wavefunction, freed by photoionization, evolves in the presence of the ion-atom scattering potential. We predict bounds for the ion-atom scattering length from ab initio calculations of the interaction potential. We demonstrate how the scattering length can be experimentally determined from the scattered wavepacket. Finally, we present our ultracold Rb-Li Rydberg setup containing an ion microscope and a delay-line detector to allow for the temporally and spatially resolved detection of the scattered ion-atom wavepacket.
[1] T. Schmid et al.; arXiv 1709.10488 (2017).