Demonstration of a three-dimensional trap for state-selected Rydberg atoms

S. D. Hogan, Frédéric Merkt

A three-dimensional trap for Rydberg atoms in selected Stark states has been realized experimentally. H atoms seeded in a supersonic expansion of Ar are excited to the low-field seeking n=30, k=25, |m|=0, 2 Rydberg-Stark states, decelerated from a mean initial velocity of 665 m/s to zero velocity in the laboratory frame and loaded into a three-dimensional electrostatic trap. The motion of the cold Rydberg atom cloud in the trap and the decay of the trapped atoms have been studied by pulsed electric field ionization and imaging techniques.

Philippe Hyafil, M. Brune

Eugeny Korsunsky, Yuri V. Rozhdestvenskii

We show that an ensemble of atoms in highly excited states with narrow center-of-mass momentum distribution (cold Rydberg atoms) can be obtained with velocity-selective (pi) - pulses and laser cooling by velocity-selective coherent population trapping (VSCPT). Both methods use three-level cascade systems with the uppermost state being the Rydberg one where the atoms are excited and cooled. Very high fraction of atoms can be cooled to subrecoil temperatures by the use of VSCPT in standing light waves.

Sarah Elizabeth Anderson

MinHyuk Kim, Hansub Hwang, Heekun Nho +2 more

Daniel Barredo, Vincent Lienhard, Pascal Scholl +4 more

We demonstrate three-dimensional trapping of individual Rydberg atoms in holographic optical bottle beam traps. Starting with cold, ground-state ^{87}Rb atoms held in standard optical tweezers, we excite them to nS_{1/2}, nP_{1/2}, or nD_{3/2} Rydberg states and transfer them to a hollow trap at 850 nm. For principal quantum numbers 60≤n≤90, the measured trapping time coincides with the Rydberg state lifetime in a 300 K environment. We show that these traps are compatible with quantum information and simulation tasks by performing single qubit microwave Rabi flopping, as well as by measuring the interaction-induced, coherent spin-exchange dynamics between two trapped Rydberg atoms separated by 40 μm. These results will find applications in the realization of high-fidelity quantum simulations and quantum logic operations with Rydberg atoms.