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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Rydberg excitation of a Bose-Einstein condensate

Nicola Malossi, María Martínez Valado, E. Arimondo, O. Morsch, D. Ciampini

Published Mar 18, 2015• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The excitation to high-lying Rydberg states is investigated in a sample of 87-Rb atoms undergoing the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition, in the limit that the spatial dimensions of the condensed cloud are smaller than the (Wan-der-Waals) dipole blockade radius. We measure the number of excitations by single ion counting as a function of the dimensions of the condensed and thermal fraction. We observed a distinct decrease in the number of excitations due to the change of the atomic spatial density distribution, from the thermal cloud, through a bimodal distribution, to the condensed cloud. When only the condensed part is present, the average number of excitations measured levels off at around one which is compatible with having a single collective excitation in the condensed cloud.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/594/1/012041

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The excitation to high-lying Rydberg states is investigated in a sample of 87-Rb atoms undergoing the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition, in the limit that the spatial dimensions of the condensed cloud are smaller than the (Wan-der-Waals) dipole blockade radius. We measure the number of excitations by single ion counting as a function of the dimensions of the condensed and thermal fraction. We observed a distinct decrease in the number of excitations due to the change of the atomic spatial density distribution, from the thermal cloud, through a bimodal distribution, to the condensed cloud. When only the condensed part is present, the average number of excitations measured levels off at around one which is compatible with having a single collective excitation in the condensed cloud.
Rydberg atoms provide a wide range of possibilities to tailor interactions in a quantum gas. Here, we report on Rydberg excitation of Bose-Einstein condensed 87Rb atoms. The Rydberg fraction was investigated for various excitation times and temperatures above and below the condensation temperature. The excitation is locally blocked by the van der Waals interaction between Rydberg atoms to a density-dependent limit. Therefore, the abrupt change of the thermal atomic density distribution to the characteristic bimodal distribution upon condensation could be observed in the Rydberg fraction. The observed features are reproduced by a simulation based on local collective Rydberg excitations.
The authors performed experiments on the coherent dynamics of Rydberg excitation in thermal clouds of87Rb for a wide range of atomic densities, single-atom Rabi-frequencies and excitation times in a specialized vacuum chamber. We further observed a clear signature of the phase transition to a Bose-Einstein condensate in the fraction of excited Rydberg atoms when cooling the thermal cloud below Tc. In our experiments the sample size is bigger than the so called blockade radius, which is defined as the interatomic distance where the interaction energy becomes equal to the power broadened linewidth of the excitation.
Ultracold atomic gases excited to strongly interacting Rydberg states are a promising system for quantum simulations of many-body systems. The dipole blockade of Rydberg excitations is a hallmark of the strong interactions between atoms in these high-lying quantum states. We have measured the Rydberg excitation for rubidium ultracold atoms in magneto-optical traps and for Bose-Einstein condensates loaded into quasi one-dimensional traps. One of the consequences of the dipole blockade is the suppression of fluctuations in the counting statistics of Rydberg excitations. We have obtained experimental results on the dynamics and the counting statistics of Rydberg excitations of ultra-cold Rubidium atoms both on and off resonance, which exhibit sub- and super-Poissonian counting statistics, respectively. We have found strongly bimodal counting distributions in the offresonant regime.
One of the most striking features of the strong interactions between Rydberg atoms is the Rydberg blockade effect, which allows only a single excitation to the Rydberg state within the volume of the blockade sphere. Here we present a method that spatially visualizes this phenomenon in an inhomogeneous gas of ultracold rubidium atoms. In our experiment we scan the position of one of the excitation lasers across the cold cloud and determine the number of Rydberg excitations detected as a function of position. Comparing this distribution to the one obtained for the number of ions created by a two-photon ionization process via the intermediate 5P5P5P level, we demonstrate that the blockade effect modifies the width of the Rydberg excitation profile. Furthermore, we study the dynamics of the Rydberg excitation and find that the time scale for the excitation depends on the atomic density at the beam position.
Abstract We present a depletion imaging technique to map out the spatial and temporal dependency of the density distribution of an ultracold gas of Rydberg atoms. Locally resolved absorption depletion, observed through differential ground state absorption imaging of a 87 Rb cloud in presence and absence of pre-excited Rydberg atoms, reveals their projected two-dimensional distribution. By employing a closed two-level optical transition uncoupled from the Rydberg state, the highly excited atoms are preserved during imaging. We measure the excitation dynamics of the ∣ 48 S 〉 state of 87 Rb, observing a saturation of the two-dimensional Rydberg density. Such outcome can be explained by the Rydberg blockade effect which prevents resonant excitation of close-by Rydberg atoms due to strong dipolar interactions. By combining the superatom description, where atoms within a blockade radius are represented as collective excitations, with a Monte Carlo sampling, we can quantitatively model the observed excitation dynamics and infer the full three-dimensional distribution of Rydberg atoms, that can serve as a starting point for quantum simulation of many-body dynamics involving Rydberg spin systems.