MOLECULE FORMATION AND STATE-CHANGING COLLISIONS OF SINGLE RYDBERG ATOMS IN A BEC

Kleinbach, Kathrin Sophie

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/79336 Copy

Description

Title

MOLECULE FORMATION AND STATE-CHANGING COLLISIONS OF SINGLE RYDBERG ATOMS IN A BEC

Author(s)

Kleinbach, Kathrin Sophie

Contributor(s)

• Greene, C.H.
• Pﾎrez-Rﾒos, Jesﾜs
• Pfau, Tilman
• Hofferberth, Sebastian
• Lﾚw, Robert
• Bﾚttcher, Fabian
• Westphal, Karl Magnus
• Cubel Liebisch, Tara
• Schlagmﾟller, Michael

Issue Date

23-Jun-15

Keyword(s)

Rydberg Atoms and Molecules

Abstract

A single Rydberg excitation in the high-density and low-temperature environment of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) leads to a fascinating testbed of low-energy electron-neutral and ion-neutral scattering. In particular the small interparticle spacing in a BEC makes it possible to study the role of ion-neutral interactions in l-changing collisions on time scales much shorter than the Rydberg lifetime. We take advantage of the mean field density shift, caused by elastic electron-neutral collisions, to probe density dependent shells of the $^{87}$Rb BEC and thereby measure the l-changing collision time versus density and principal quantum number. We report on l-changing collisions due to inelastic scattering of the Rydberg electron with a neutral atom located near the Rydberg ionic core. We measure timescales of both the l-changing collision and the Rb$_{2}$ molecule formation of less than one microsecond for n $<$ 100 at the highest BEC densities. We extract a change in kinetic energy of the Rydberg atoms that matches well with the energy gap to the next-lowest manifold. We measure Rb$_{2}$ signal that decreases with increasing principal quantum number. The mechanism and timescales of the l-changing collision are compared with simulations including the motion of the ionic core and neutral atoms, as well as the Rydberg electron.

Publisher

International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy

Type of Resource

text

Language

English

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/79336

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