Studies Involving Atoms in High Rydberg States

涉及高里德堡态原子的研究

• 批准号: 1600059
• 负责人: F. Barry Dunning
• 金额: $ 56.1万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-15 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1600059&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Studies; Involving; Atoms; Rydberg; States

The ability to manipulate the internal states of atoms and to control the interactions between neighboring atoms is central to many recent discoveries in science. Advances in this area have resulted in a better understanding of quantum mechanics, the theory that describes the behavior of matter at the microscopic level, and have enabled the new field of quantum information in which quantum mechanics is used as the basis of new technologies related to encryption, information processing, and computing. Manipulating the internal states of atoms involved in chemical reactions makes it possible to produce specific targeted reaction products. Atomic interactions also give rise to collective atomic behavior that result, for example, in magnetism or superconductivity. Tuning such interactions therefore provides insights into such phenomena which, in turn, can enable the design of improved magnetic materials for computer hard drives or improved superconductors for power transmission. This project aims to improve our ability to control and manipulate atomic states and to develop a better understanding of atomic interactions. In specific, this project will heat strontium atoms in a special oven until they boil out of a small hole, forming collimated beam to atoms and then lasers will be used to pump energy into the atoms. After this, electric fields will be applied to the atoms to distort them, they will be allowed to interact, and then other lasers, electric fields, and cameras will be used to determine the results. Similar studies will be done that are complementary to these, using a laser to cool the atoms rather than heating them in an oven. As a starting point, strontium atoms in well-defined initial Rydberg states will be prepared by use of laser light. Techniques developed to manipulate the wave functions of such atoms using a carefully-tailored series of electric field pulses will be exploited to create strongly-interacting Rydberg systems. Initially, a dipole blockade will be employed to create pairs of (weakly-interacting) Rydberg atoms with well-defined separations. Their mutual interactions will then be increased by simultaneously exciting both to some selected higher state, the degree of interaction being tuned by choice of target state (and atom separation). The time evolution of the product two-electron wave packet will be examined to explore energy interchange and search for long-lived configurations where, due to their correlated motions, the electrons remain far apart. Measurements will be extended to include three, or more, strongly interacting Rydberg atoms and explore the onset of many-body effects. Attempts will also be made to create, within a single atom, long-lived two-electron-excited states, i.e., so-called planetary atoms. In addition, control of the interactions between ground state atoms through optical dressing with radiation tuned near resonance with a Rydberg state will be explored. Preliminary measurements have revealed unexpectedly large ground state atom loss rates and the processes responsible will be identified and means to mitigate them sought.

操纵原子内部状态和控制相邻原子之间相互作用的能力是许多最近科学发现的核心。这一领域的进展使人们对量子力学有了更好的理解，量子力学是在微观层面描述物质行为的理论，并使量子信息的新领域成为可能，在这个领域中，量子力学被用作与加密、信息处理和计算相关的新技术的基础。操纵化学反应中涉及的原子的内部状态使产生特定的靶向反应产物成为可能。原子相互作用也会导致集体原子行为，例如，导致磁性或超导性。因此，调整这种相互作用提供了对这种现象的洞察，进而可以为计算机硬盘驱动器设计改进的磁性材料，或者为电力传输改进超导体。这个项目旨在提高我们控制和操纵原子态的能力，并对原子相互作用有更好的理解。具体地说，这个项目将在一个特殊的烤箱中加热锶原子，直到它们从一个小洞中沸腾出来，形成准直的光束到原子，然后激光将被用来向原子注入能量。在此之后，电场将被施加到原子上以使它们扭曲，它们将被允许相互作用，然后将使用其他激光、电场和相机来确定结果。作为对这些研究的补充，类似的研究也将进行，使用激光冷却原子，而不是在烤箱中加热。作为起点，我们将利用激光来制备具有明确初始里德堡态的锶原子。使用精心定制的一系列电场脉冲来操纵此类原子的波函数所开发的技术将被用来创建强相互作用的里德堡系统。最初，偶极封锁将被用来创建具有明确分离的(弱相互作用)里德堡原子对。然后，它们的相互作用将通过同时激发两者到某个选定的较高状态来增加，相互作用的程度通过目标状态的选择(和原子分离)来调节。我们将研究产品双电子波包的时间演化，以探索能量交换和寻找长寿命组态，在这些组态中，由于它们的关联运动，电子仍然保持很远的距离。测量范围将扩大到包括三个或更多强相互作用的里德堡原子，并探索多体效应的开始。还将尝试在单个原子内创造长寿命的双电子激发态，即所谓的行星原子。此外，还将探索通过光学修饰来控制基态原子之间的相互作用，其中辐射与里德堡态的共振附近调谐。初步测量显示，基态原子损失率出人意料地高，将确定负责的过程，并寻求减轻这些过程的方法。