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Physical Review A

Motion in an ultralong-range potential in cold-Rydberg-atom collisions

Valter Aragão do Nascimento, M. Reetz‐Lamour, L. L. Caliri, A. L. de Oliveira, Luís Gustavo Marcassa

Published Mar 14, 2006• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In a recent letter Li et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 173001 (2005)] have studied experimentally the role of dipole-dipole interactions in the ionization of Rydberg atoms and the formation of a cold plasma. The authors associated their observations with atomic motion due to such interaction. In this work, we adapt the dynamical model proposed by De Oliveira et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 143002 (2003)] based on a two atom interaction, which reproduce qualitatively well some experimental results observed by Li and co-workers. This comparison presents clear evidences of motion in such ultralong range potential between cold-Rydberg atoms, which may be important for some applications, as quantum computation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.73.034703

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Motion in an ultralong-range potential in cold-Rydberg-atom collisions (3 pages)

M. Reetz‐Lamour, Valter Aragão do Nascimento

Physical Review A•Jan 1, 2006•0 citations
In a recent letter Li et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 173001 (2005)] have studied experimentally the role of dipole-dipole interactions in the ionization of Rydberg atoms and the formation of a cold plasma. The authors associated their observations with atomic motion due to such interaction. In this work, we adapt the dynamical model proposed by De Oliveira et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 143002 (2003)] based on a two atom interaction, which reproduce qualitatively well some experimental results observed by Li and co-workers. This comparison presents clear evidences of motion in such ultralong range potential between cold-Rydberg atoms, which may be important for some applications, as quantum computation.
In a previous Letter by Oliveira et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 143002 (2003)], the time evolution of the 34S1∕234{S}_{1∕2}34S1∕2​ population, resulting from energy-transfer collisions between 33P3∕2+33P3∕233{P}_{3∕2}+33{P}_{3∕2}33P3∕2​+33P3∕2​ Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap, was explained based on an ultralong-range potential. However, some experimental oscillations observed in the signal could not be reproduced by that model. In this work we reanalyze such a experimental results considering an internuclear separation-dependent colliding atomic pair distribution. This analysis suggests that such a distribution in the ultralong-range Rydberg molecular potential is responsible for the observed oscillations.
In cold dense Rydberg atom samples, the dipole-dipole interaction strength is effectively resonant at the typical interatomic spacing in the sample, and the interaction has a 1/R3 dependence on interatomic spacing R. The dipole-dipole attraction leads to ionizing collisions of initially stationary atoms, which produces hot atoms and ions and initiates the evolution of initially cold samples of neutral Rydberg atoms into plasmas. More generally, the strong dipole-dipole forces lead to motion, which must be considered in proposed applications.
Using state-selective field ionization, the state distributions of Rydberg atoms in cold Rydberg gases are measured for various initially excited Rydberg levels, populations, and evolution times. We provide direct experimental evidence for lll-changing collisions that we previously observed indirectly [S. K. Dutta, D. Feldbaum, A. Walz-Flannigan, J. R. Guest, and G. Raithel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3993 (2001)]. We also observe nnn-mixing and find that its effects are largely in agreement with recent theoretical work on nnn-changing collisions between electrons and Rydberg atoms, thus enabling an estimation of the electron temperature. Unexpectedly large populations of atoms are found in states with principal quantum numbers much lower than that of the initially excited atoms. We explain this observation by collisions between high-lll Rydberg atoms, which are highly polar and can collide due to static electric-dipole forces between them.
Abstract Cold Rydberg atoms provide novel approaches to many-body problems and quantum simulation. To introduce the recent work presented in this special issue, we present here a quick history of a half-century research activity in the Rydberg-atom field, focusing our attention on the giant interactions between Rydberg atoms and other atoms. These interactions are the origin of many effects observed with Rydberg atoms: pressure shifts, dipole–dipole energy transfer, and avalanche-ionization. These effects have led to evidence of new bound chemical states, such as trilobites states, many-body effects in frozen Rydberg gases, and the spontaneous formation of ultra-cold plasmas. They open exciting new prospects at the intersection of atomic physics, condensed matter physics, and plasma physics.
We have considered two types of interactions between particles resulting in autoionization of the intermediate Rydberg collisional complex.The first type is caused by the charge exchange processes inside the ionic core of the complex and is responsible for the formation of the final associative ionization channel due to the departure of a Rydberg electron (RE) of the complex to the energy continuum.We have investigated the evolution of the orbital momentum L of RE and discovered a non-trivial time dependence of L, demonstrating a contrasting oscillatory structure in both direction orientation and its absolute value.The second type of interaction, dipole-dipole interaction, dominates in cold highly excited gaseous media and leads to Penning ionization of various pairs of Rydberg atoms.We have found the optimal quantum configurations of atomic pairs, which intensify the PI rates by several orders of magnitude, and become important suppliers of charged particles upon the evolution of Rydberg gas into cold plasma.