Rydberg excitation of a Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

We have performed two-photon excitation via the 6P3/2 state to n=50-80 S or D Rydberg state in Bose-Einstein condensates of rubidium atoms. The Rydberg excitation was performed in a quartz cell, where electric fields generated by plates external to the cell created electric charges on the cell walls. Avoiding accumulation of the charges and realizing good control over the applied electric field was obtained when the fields were applied only for a short time, typically a few microseconds. Rydberg excitations of the Bose-Einstein condensates loaded into quasi one-dimensional traps and in optical lattices have been investigated. The results for condensates expanded to different sizes in the one-dimensional trap agree well with the intuitive picture of a chain of Rydberg excitations controlled by the dipole-dipole interaction. The optical lattice applied along the one-dimensional geometry produces localized, collective Rydberg excitations controlled by the nearest-neighbour blockade.

7 pages, 7 figures, Laser Physics in press. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1103.4232

References in corpus (11)

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• Quasiclassical calculations of BBR-induced depopulation rates and effective lifetimes of Rydberg nS, nP and nD alkali-metal atoms with n < 80
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• Rydberg excitation of Bose-Einstein condensates
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• De-excitation spectroscopy of strongly interacting Rydberg gases
• Rydberg tomography of an ultra-cold atomic cloud
• Analog cosmology with spinor BECs