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arXiv:2303.10044 · Physical Review Applied

Electric Field Analysis in a Cold-Ion Source Using Stark Spectroscopy of Rydberg Atoms

Alisher Duspayev, Georg A. Raithel

Published Apr 18, 2023• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Cold-atom-based ion sources (CABIS) are a timely example of how laser cooling and trapping can be used in practical applications, such as nanofabrication and microscopy. Unfortunately, Coulomb repulsion between ions can significantly deteriorate CABIS performance. The authors demonstrate that embedded Rydberg atoms can be used for noninvasive, near-real-time measurement of the electric fields between ions in CABIS, and thereby to control Coulomb-induced degradation via feedback. The spectra of different Rydberg states reveal which states are suitable for low- and high-field monitoring, and this work also sheds light on many-body interactions between ultracold ions and neutral atoms.

DOI
10.1103/physrevapplied.19.044051

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Long-range interactions between cold Rydberg atoms are being investigated for neutral-atom quantum computing, quantum simulations, phase transitions in cold Rydberg gases and other applications. Fine tuning of the interaction strength can be implemented using Förster resonances between Rydberg atoms controlled by an electric field. The observation of the Stark-tuned Förster resonances between Rydberg atoms excited by narrowband cw laser radiation requires usage of a Stark-switching technique in order to excite the atoms first in a fixed electric field and then to induce the interactions in a varied electric field, which is scanned across the Förster resonance. The application of the radio-frequency field causes additional Förster resonances between collective states, whose line shape depends on the interaction strengths and time. Spatial averaging over the atom positions in a single interaction volume yields a cusped line shape of the Förster resonance. We present a detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of the line shape and time dynamics of the Stark-tuned Förster resonances Rb( nP 3/2 ) + Rb( nP 3/2 ) → Rb( nS 1/2 ) + Rb([ n + 1] S 1/2 ) for two Rb Rydberg atoms interacting in a time-varying electric field.

Journal of Physics Conference Series•Jan 1, 2017•0 citations
Cold-atom-based ion sources (CABIS) are a timely example of how laser cooling and trapping can be used in practical applications, such as nanofabrication and microscopy. Unfortunately, Coulomb repulsion between ions can significantly deteriorate CABIS performance. The authors demonstrate that embedded Rydberg atoms can be used for noninvasive, near-real-time measurement of the electric fields between ions in CABIS, and thereby to control Coulomb-induced degradation via feedback. The spectra of different Rydberg states reveal which states are suitable for low- and high-field monitoring, and this work also sheds light on many-body interactions between ultracold ions and neutral atoms.
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.
We report on the observation of interactions between ultracold Rydberg atoms and ions in a Paul trap. The rate of observed inelastic collisions, which manifest themselves as charge transfer between the Rydberg atoms and ions, exceeds that of Langevin collisions for ground state atoms by about 3 orders of magnitude. This indicates a huge increase in interaction strength. We study the effect of the vacant Paul trap's electric fields on the Rydberg excitation spectra. To quantitatively describe the exhibited shape of the ion loss spectra, we need to include the ion-induced Stark shift on the Rydberg atoms. Furthermore, we demonstrate Rydberg excitation on a dipole-forbidden transition with the aid of the electric field of a single trapped ion. Our results confirm that interactions between ultracold atoms and trapped ions can be controlled by laser coupling to Rydberg states. Adding dynamic Rydberg dressing may allow for the creation of spin-spin interactions between atoms and ions, and the elimination of collisional heating due to ionic micromotion in atom-ion mixtures.
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.
We report on Rydberg spectroscopy of ultracold atoms in an atom-ion hybrid trap for probing the electric fields in a mixture of atoms and ions. We obtain spectra which exhibit excitation gaps corresponding to avoided level crossings in the Stark map. From these measurements we can conclude that the ground state atoms experience electrical fields of up to 250 V/cm. There is, however, a difficulty in interpreting the results, because some data indicate that the electrical fields are produced by the ions while other data indicate that they stem from the Paul trap. We discuss possible scenarios for explaining the measured data, provide first measurements to check these scenarios, and propose methods to finally solve this puzzle.
Long-range interactions between cold Rydberg atoms are being investigated for neutral-atom quantum computing, quantum simulations, phase transitions in cold Rydberg gases and other applications. Fine tuning of the interaction strength can be implemented using Förster resonances between Rydberg atoms controlled by an electric field. The observation of the Stark-tuned Förster resonances between Rydberg atoms excited by narrowband cw laser radiation requires usage of a Stark-switching technique in order to excite the atoms first in a fixed electric field and then to induce the interactions in a varied electric field, which is scanned across the Förster resonance. The application of the radio-frequency field causes additional Förster resonances between collective states, whose line shape depends on the interaction strengths and time. Spatial averaging over the atom positions in a single interaction volume yields a cusped line shape of the Förster resonance. We present a detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of the line shape and time dynamics of the Stark-tuned Förster resonances Rb( nP 3/2 ) + Rb( nP 3/2 ) → Rb( nS 1/2 ) + Rb([ n + 1] S 1/2 ) for two Rb Rydberg atoms interacting in a time-varying electric field.