An experimental approach for investigating many-body phenomena in Rydberg-interacting quantum systems
An experimental approach for investigating many-body phenomena in Rydberg-interacting quantum systems
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DOI：
10.1007/s11467-013-0396-7
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发表时间：
2013-11
影响因子：
7.5
通讯作者：
C. Hofmann;G. Günter;H. Schempp;N. Müller;A. Faber;H. Busche;M. Robert-de-Saint-Vincent;S. Whitlock;M. Weidemüller
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文献类型：
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作者：
C. Hofmann;G. Günter;H. Schempp;N. Müller;A. Faber;H. Busche;M. Robert-de-Saint-Vincent;S. Whitlock;M. Weidemüller
超冷里德伯气体研究的最新进展需要先进的实验复杂性，其中高原子和光密度必须与良好的外场控制和灵敏的里德伯原子检测相结合。我们描述了一个量身定制的实验系统，用于生产和研究里德堡相互作用的原子从致密的超冷原子气体激发。该实验已被优化为快速占空比使用高通量冷原子源和三束光偶极阱。后者能够在几个数量级上调节原子密度和温度，一直到玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚转变。围绕原子的电极结构允许精确控制电场和里德堡原子的单粒子敏感场电离检测。我们回顾了两个实验，突出了强里德伯-里德伯相互作用对不同的多体系统的影响。首先，里德伯阻塞效应被用来预结构的原子气体自发演化成超冷等离子体之前。第二，研究了光子和原子的混合态，称为暗态极化激元。通过观察里德伯激发态原子的统计分布，我们揭示了暗态极化激元之间的相关性。这些实验最终将提供对强相互作用机制中多体现象的更深入理解，包括在量子水平上研究强耦合等离子体以及原子与光之间的界面。
Recent developments in the study of ultracold Rydberg gases demand an advanced level of experimental sophistication, in which high atomic and optical densities must be combined with excellent control of external fields and sensitive Rydberg atom detection. We describe a tailored experimental system used to produce and study Rydberg-interacting atoms excited from dense ultracold atomic gases. The experiment has been optimized for fast duty cycles using a high flux cold atom source and a three beam optical dipole trap. The latter enables tuning of the atomic density and temperature over several orders of magnitude, all the way to the Bose-Einstein condensation transition. An electrode structure surrounding the atoms allows for precise control over electric fields and single-particle sensitive field ionization detection of Rydberg atoms. We review two experiments which highlight the influence of strong Rydberg-Rydberg interactions on different many-body systems. First, the Rydberg blockade effect is used to pre-structure an atomic gas prior to its spontaneous evolution into an ultracold plasma. Second, hybrid states of photons and atoms called dark-state polaritons are studied. By looking at the statistical distribution of Rydberg excited atoms we reveal correlations between dark-state polaritons. These experiments will ultimately provide a deeper understanding of many-body phenomena in strongly-interacting regimes, including the study of strongly-coupled plasmas and interfaces between atoms and light at the quantum level.