Collaborative Research: Coherent Control of Interactions among Ultracold Rydberg Atoms

这个项目是Bryn Mawr学院和Ursinus学院之间的合作努力，在这个项目中，我们正在通过实验和计算相结合的努力来探索超冷里德堡原子之间相互作用的相干控制。当超冷气体中的原子被激发到弱束缚里德堡态时，它们可以通过偶极-偶极相互作用交换能量。在许多情况下，这种能量交换进行得足够快，以至于原子基本上是静止的，就像无定形固体一样。这导致了能量交换过程中复杂的多体过程，可以用各种技术来操纵。我们正在集中精力，通过激发初始态的相干叠加，以特定的空间图案排列里德堡原子，以及操纵用于将这种能量交换调节为共振的电场的几何形状和时间，来相干地控制原子之间的偶极-偶极能量交换。这些实验正在帮助扩展控制原子相互作用的工具包。我们正在使用并行计算资源对实验进行建模，以帮助理解复杂的多体相互作用。冷里德堡原子提供了一个丰富的系统，可以在其中探索一系列社区广泛感兴趣的基本物理。每个原子的内部结构和这些原子的空间排列都可以控制的精度，将使我们能够研究一系列构型的多体效应和关联效应。近年来，人们对由长程偶极-偶极相互作用耦合的超冷气体的兴趣迅速增长，并正在利用具有大磁自旋的原子和异核分子以及里德堡原子进行探索。这个项目将吸引Bryn Mawr和Ursinus的本科生，特别注意吸引女学生，对超冷Rydberg原子进行计算和实验研究。布林·莫尔和乌尔辛斯是位于宾夕法尼亚州东南部的两所规模较小的国立文理学院，距离很近。Bryn Mawr授予少量博士学位，该项目还将资助一名研究生。该项目的合作性质将为两所学院的学生提供更多机会。

This project is a collaborative effort between Bryn Mawr College and Ursinus College in which we are exploring the coherent control of interactions among ultracold Rydberg atoms with a combination of experimental and computational efforts. When atoms in an ultracold gas are excited to weakly bound Rydberg states, they can exchange energy through a dipole-dipole interaction. In many cases this energy exchange proceeds quickly enough that the atoms are essentially stationary, resembling an amorphous solid. This leads to complicated many-body processes during the energy exchange that can be manipulated with a variety of techniques. We are focusing our efforts on coherently controlling the dipole-dipole energy exchange among atoms by exciting coherent superpositions of initial states, arranging the Rydberg atoms in particular spatial patterns, and manipulating the geometry and timing of the electric field used to tune this energy exchange into resonance. These experiments are helping to expand the toolkit for controlling atomic interactions. We are modeling the experiments using parallel computing resources in order to contribute to the understanding of the complex many-body interactions.Cold Rydberg atoms provide a rich system in which to explore a range of fundamental physics that is of interest to a broad segment of the community. The precision with which both the internal structure of each atom and the spatial arrangement of these atoms can be controlled will allow us to study many-body and correlation effects for a range of configurations. The interest in ultracold gases coupled by long range dipole-dipole interactions has grown rapidly in recent years and is being explored using atoms with large magnetic spins and heteronuclear molecules as well as Rydberg atoms.This project will engage undergraduates, with particular attention to attracting female students, at both Bryn Mawr and Ursinus in computational and experimental research on ultracold Rydberg atoms. Bryn Mawr and Ursinus are small, national liberal arts colleges located in close proximity in southeastern Pennsylvania. Bryn Mawr awards a small number of PhDs and this project will also support a graduate student. The collaborative nature of the project will broaden opportunities for students at both institutions.