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arXiv:1705.07685 · Physical Review A

Characterizing the local vectorial electric field near an atom chip using Rydberg-state spectroscopy

Nataly Cisternas, Julius de Hond, G. Lochead, R. J. C. Spreeuw, H. B. van Linden van den Heuvell, N. J. van Druten

Published Jul 25, 2017• 14 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We use the sensitive response to electric fields of Rydberg atoms to characterize all three vector components of the local electric field close to an atom-chip surface. We measured Stark-Zeeman maps of $S$ and $D$ Rydberg states using an elongated cloud of ultracold rubidium atoms (temperature $T\ensuremath{\sim}2.5\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$) trapped magnetically $100\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ from the chip surface. The spectroscopy of $S$ states yields a calibration for the generated local electric field at the position of the atoms. The values for different components of the field are extracted from the more complex response of $D$ states to the combined electric and magnetic fields. From the analysis we find residual fields in the two uncompensated directions of $0.0\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2$ and $1.98\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.09$ V/cm. This method also allows us to extract a value for the relevant field gradient along the long axis of the cloud. The manipulation of electric fields and the magnetic trapping are both done using on-chip wires, making this setup a promising candidate to observe Rydberg-mediated interactions on a chip.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.96.013425

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arXiv:1701.01638•Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•Apr 22, 2016•6 citations
We use the sensitive response to electric fields of Rydberg atoms to characterize all three vector components of the local electric field close to an atom-chip surface. We measured Stark-Zeeman maps of SSS and DDD Rydberg states using an elongated cloud of ultracold rubidium atoms (temperature T\ensuremath∼2.5\ensuremathμKT\ensuremath{\sim}2.5\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}T\ensuremath∼2.5\ensuremathμK) trapped magnetically 100\ensuremathμm100\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}100\ensuremathμm from the chip surface. The spectroscopy of SSS states yields a calibration for the generated local electric field at the position of the atoms. The values for different components of the field are extracted from the more complex response of DDD states to the combined electric and magnetic fields. From the analysis we find residual fields in the two uncompensated directions of 0.0\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.20.0\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.20.0\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.2 and 1.98\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.091.98\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.091.98\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.09 V/cm. This method also allows us to extract a value for the relevant field gradient along the long axis of the cloud. The manipulation of electric fields and the magnetic trapping are both done using on-chip wires, making this setup a promising candidate to observe Rydberg-mediated interactions on a chip.
On one side, atom-chip experiments have demonstrated to be a versatile tool to study quantum physics in cold atoms systems. On the other side, Rydberg atoms have exaggerated properties that makes them good candidates to study quantum information and quantum simulations protocols. In this thesis both system are put together with the aim to study Rydberg physics (in particular atom-atom interaction) in an atom-chip experiment. Due to the exaggerated properties of Rydberg atoms they are very sensitive to electric fields. Thus, the combination of Rydberg atoms with surfaces can be challenging. Therefore a detailed characterization of the mentioned stray electric fields via the analysis of Stark-Zeeman maps is crucial. We employ two-photon Rydberg Stark spectroscopy of a micron-sized cloud of magnetically trapped ultracold rubidium atoms to characterize the electric fields near our atom-chip. Once we characterized the local electric fields we were able to study in more detail the effect of Rydberg excitation in the ultracold cloud of atoms. For instance we observed the formation of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules in our system. In these molecules a ground state atom is weakly bound to the Rydberg electron. We also attempted to observe the effect of Rydberg blockade in the system by looking at the characteristics of Rydberg spectra. Finally we studied the possibility of inducing rf transitions within a Rydberg state manifold in order to enhance our detection method and populate states that are not accessible directly with a two-photon laser transition.
Rydberg atoms, i.e. atoms with one or more highly excited electrons, show exaggerated properties compared to ground state atoms. For example, their energy levels are very sensitive to external electric fields (Stark effect) and they exhibit strong interatomic interactions, which can lead to a suppression of excitation known as the Rydberg blockade. The latter property makes Rydberg atoms promising candidates for quantum simulation and quantum computing. This work describes the direct observation of the excitation blockade for highly Stark-shifted Rydberg atoms induced by controllable dipole-dipole interactions. We investigate the electric field region around and above the classical ionization threshold, which is typically not considered suitable for blockade experiments. We excite Rydberg atoms in the energy region corresponding to the unperturbed 43S1/2 state at electric fields around 127V/cm out of a magneto-optically trapped cloud of 87Rb atoms with a temperature of 150 μK. We tune the dipole-dipole interaction by the applied electric field thus changing the electric dipole moment of the excited state. The position of the Rydberg atoms is detected by ionization and subsequent ion imaging; the controlled ionization of the atoms is achieved by adiabatic transfer of the Rydberg state to an ionizing state. For the spatially resolved detection of the atoms, a high resolution ion microscope for cold atoms has been developed and experimentally characterized. It features a maximum magnification of 1000 and sub-micrometer spatial resolution. A theoretical treatment of highly Stark-shifted Rydberg states is developed introducing a complex absorbing potential. It is capable of predicting the ionization rates of the Rydberg states for a wide range of electric fields and energies with only one free parameter. Together with the numerical calculations, measurements of the ionization spectra for different Rydberg states are presented. The 43S1/2 state is measured in an electric-field range from 125V/cm to 165V/cm (classical ionization limit 127V/cm), the 70S1/2 state in an electric-field range from 15V/cm to 35V/cm (classical ionization limit 16.1V/cm) and the 100S1/2 state in an electric-field range from 7V/cm to 19V/cm (classical ionization limit 3.7V/cm). Our results show an intricate energy level structure with broad, strongly ionizing states as well as sharp, nearly non-ionizing states. The numerical calculations are also used for the prediction of selective field ionization spectra and the results are used to identify Förster resonances in the Stark spectrum of the 45D5/2 state. Complementary to the spatially resolved measurements in high electric fields, the Rydberg blockade effect is also observed via the excitation number statistics at Förster resonances.
A spectroscopic study of Rydberg states of helium (n = 30 and 45) in magnetic, electric and combined magnetic and electric fields with arbitrary relative orientations of the field vectors is presented. The emphasis is on two special cases where (i) the diamagnetic term is negligible and both paramagnetic Zeeman and Stark effects are linear (n = 30, B ≤ 120 mT and F = 0-78 V cm⁻¹), and (ii) the diamagnetic term is dominant and the Stark effect is linear (n = 45, B = 277 mT and F = 0-8 V cm⁻¹). Both cases correspond to regimes where the interactions induced by the electric and magnetic fields are much weaker than the Coulomb interaction, but much stronger than the spin-orbit interaction. The experimental spectra are compared to spectra calculated by determining the eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian matrix describing helium Rydberg states in the external fields. The spectra and the calculated energy-level diagrams in external fields reveal avoided crossings between levels of different m ₗ values and pronounced m ₁-mixing effects at all angles between the electric- and magnetic-field vectors other than 0. These observations are discussed in the context of the development of a method to generate dense samples of cold atoms and molecules in a magnetic trap following Rydberg-Stark deceleration.
The electric fields near the heterogeneous metal-dielectric surface of an atom chip were measured using cold atoms. The atomic sensitivity to electric fields was enhanced by exciting the atoms to Rydberg states that are 108{}^{8}8 times more polarizable than the ground state. We attribute the measured fields to charging of the insulators between the atom chip wires. Surprisingly, it is found that although the chip wire currents were turned off before Rydberg excitation, the measured fields were strongly influenced by how the wire currents had been applied. These fields may be dramatically lowered with appropriate voltage biasing, suggesting configurations for the future development of hybrid quantum systems.
Experiments handling Rydberg atoms near surfaces must necessarily deal with the high sensitivity of Rydberg atoms to (stray) electric fields that typically emanate from adsorbates on the surface. We demonstrate a method to modify and reduce the stray electric field by changing the adsorbate distribution. We use one of the Rydberg excitation lasers to locally affect the adsorbed dipole distribution. By adjusting the averaged exposure time we change the strength (with the minimal value less than 0.2V/cm0.2\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}0.2V/cm at $78\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ from the chip) and even the sign of the perpendicular field component. This technique is a useful tool for experiments handling Rydberg atoms near surfaces, including atom chips.
Abstract A spectroscopic study of Rydberg states of helium ( n = 30 and 45) in magnetic, electric and combined magnetic and electric fields with arbitrary relative orientations of the field vectors is presented. The emphasis is on two special cases where (i) the diamagnetic term is negligible and both paramagnetic Zeeman and Stark effects are linear ( n = 30, B ≤ 120 mT and F = 0–78 V cm −1 ), and (ii) the diamagnetic term is dominant and the Stark effect is linear ( n = 45, B = 277 mT and F = 0–8 V cm −1 ). Both cases correspond to regimes where the interactions induced by the electric and magnetic fields are much weaker than the Coulomb interaction, but much stronger than the spin–orbit interaction. The experimental spectra are compared to spectra calculated by determining the eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian matrix describing helium Rydberg states in the external fields. The spectra and the calculated energy-level diagrams in external fields reveal avoided crossings between levels of different m l values and pronounced m l -mixing effects at all angles between the electric- and magnetic-field vectors other than 0. These observations are discussed in the context of the development of a method to generate dense samples of cold atoms and molecules in a magnetic trap following Rydberg–Stark deceleration.