Ultracold Rydberg Atoms and Molecules

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This award is a renewal of one portion of a group grant that involved several research projects involving ultracold molecules, photoassociative spectroscopy, and ultracold Rydberg atoms and plasmas. This funding will continue the ultracold Rydberg project. Ultracold Rydberg gases and plasmas can be strongly-coupled systems. This results in novel dynamical behavior, including interconversion of ultracold plasmas and cold Rydberg gases, that forms one focus of the research. The PI will also focus on the physics of the Rydberg-Rydberg interactions themselves, especially studies of novel molecular interactions such as pairwise photoassociation, ultra-long-range "macrodimers," and weakly bound "trilobite" molecules comprising one Rydberg atom and one ground-state atom. Nonlinear effects can play an unusually prominent role in cold Rydberg gases, because of their high density combined with their extreme sensitivity to external fields. The PI will undertake studies of superradiance and superfluorescence, building on preliminary results that appear to show strong density-dependent effects. The PI will also undertake studies of Rydberg states of molecules, as opposed to ultra-long-range molecules comprised of Rydberg atoms. On the broader impacts, components of the program that will serve to integrate this research with graduate and undergraduate education include regular group meetings, mentoring, workshops, participation in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, participation in the European Community Research Training Network (ECRTN) on Cold Molecules, and numerous collaborations. In these components the investigators will continue to seek participation of underrepresented groups.