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Physical Review Letters

Surface-Electrode Rydberg-Stark Decelerator

S. D. Hogan, Pitt Allmendinger, Heiner Saßmannshausen, Hansjürg Schmutz, Frédéric Merkt

Published Feb 10, 2012• 55 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Hydrogen atoms in Rydberg states with principal quantum numbers between 23 and 70 have been accelerated, decelerated, and electrostatically trapped using a surface-electrode Rydberg-Stark decelerator. By applying a set of oscillating electrical potentials to a two-dimensional array of electrodes on a printed circuit board (PCB), a continuously moving, three-dimensional electric trap with a predefined velocity and acceleration is generated. From an initial longitudinal velocity of 760 m/s, final velocities of the Rydberg atoms ranging from 1200 m/s to zero velocity in the laboratory-fixed frame of reference were achieved. Accelerated or decelerated atoms were detected directly by pulsed electric-field ionization. Atoms trapped at zero mean velocity above the PCB were reaccelerated off the PCB before field ionization.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.108.063008

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Physical Review A•Oct 29, 2013•20 citations
Hydrogen atoms in Rydberg states with principal quantum numbers between 23 and 70 have been accelerated, decelerated, and electrostatically trapped using a surface-electrode Rydberg-Stark decelerator. By applying a set of oscillating electrical potentials to a two-dimensional array of electrodes on a printed circuit board (PCB), a continuously moving, three-dimensional electric trap with a predefined velocity and acceleration is generated. From an initial longitudinal velocity of 760 m/s, final velocities of the Rydberg atoms ranging from 1200 m/s to zero velocity in the laboratory-fixed frame of reference were achieved. Accelerated or decelerated atoms were detected directly by pulsed electric-field ionization. Atoms trapped at zero mean velocity above the PCB were reaccelerated off the PCB before field ionization.
The experimental realisation of a set of surface-based devices for controlling the positions and velocities of Rydberg atoms initially travelling in pulsed supersonic beams is described. The unique aspect of these devices is that they are based on the geometry of two-dimensional electrical transmission-lines and are therefore suited to integration with chip-based microwave circuits to realise a complete Rydberg laboratory on a chip. Such a chip-based laboratory could be exploited in hybrid approaches to quantum information processing, and for studies of collisions and decay processes of highly excited atoms and molecules. The devices operate through the generation of inhomogeneous electric fields and take advantage of the large electric dipole moments associated with high Rydberg states to exert forces on the atoms. In the experiments, helium atoms in Rydberg-Stark states with principal quantum numbers ranging from 48 to 52 and electric dipole moments of 10000 D are employed. The devices developed include electrostatic guides which permitted control over the transverse motion of beams of atoms. These were used to transport samples, initially travelling at 1950 m/s and deflect them away from their initial axis of propagation. The guided atoms were detected by pulsed electric field ionisation. To control the longitudinal motion of the samples, the transmission-lines were modified to permit the generation of sets of continuously moving electric traps. The resulting transmission-line decelerators were then employed to guide, accelerate and decelerate atoms trapped in three-dimensions. Accelerations up to 2.3 x 10^{7} m/s^{2} were applied to decelerate samples from 2000 m/s to zero-velocity in the laboratory-fixed frame of reference, leading to the removal of 80 meV of kinetic energy, the largest achieved in any Stark decelerator to date. The decelerated atoms were trapped in stationary electric traps and detected in situ. The phase-space acceptances of the decelerators were calculated to characterise the effects of acceleration and deceleration on the trapped atoms. The results of the calculations were employed in the interpretation of the experimental data, and to identify effects of collisions and blackbody transitions.
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.
Hydrogen molecules in selected core-nonpenetrating Rydberg-Stark states have been decelerated from a mean initial velocity of 500 m/s to zero velocity in the laboratory frame and loaded into a three-dimensional electrostatic trap. Trapping times, measured by pulsed electric field ionization of the trapped molecules, are found to be limited by collisional processes. As Rydberg states can be deexcited to the absolute ground state, the method can be applied to generate cold samples of a wide range of species.
A surface-electrode decelerator and deflector for Rydberg atoms and molecules has been developed with the goal of performing collisional experiments. Translationally cold H2{\mathrm{H}}_{2}H2​ molecules in a supersonic beam were excited to Rydberg-Stark states of principal quantum number n=31n=31n=31, loaded into electric traps moving at a predetermined speed above the surface of a bent printed circuit board, decelerated, and deflected from the original direction of the supersonic beam by an angle of ${10}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$. The phase-space characteristics of the deflected beam were characterized by measuring the time-of-flight distribution and images of the Rydberg molecules and comparing them to the results of numerical particle-trajectory simulations. More than 1000 H2{\mathrm{H}}_{2}H2​ molecules were deflected per experimental cycle at a repetition rate of 25 Hz. The phase-space characteristics of the deflector make it attractive to study ion-molecule reactions at low collision energies.
Hydrogen atoms in supersonic expansions with velocities in the range from 700to800m∕s700\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{to}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}800\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}∕\mathrm{s}700to800m∕s have been excited to Rydberg-Stark states with principal quantum number nnn between 20 and 40, decelerated to zero velocity in the lab frame using time-dependent inhomogeneous electric fields, and trapped in a two-dimensional electrostatic trap with an initial density of $\ensuremath{\approx}5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. The motion of the atomic cloud in the trap was observed by measuring the times of flight and images of the H+{\mathrm{H}}^{+}H+ ions produced by pulsed field ionization. The velocity distribution of the trapped atoms can be described by an effective temperature of 350mK350\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mK}350mK. The decay of the population of trapped atoms does not follow a single-exponential behavior and has contributions from radiative and collisional processes.
A surface-electrode decelerator consisting of 44 electrodes has been used to decelerate supersonic beams of helium Rydberg atoms moving with an initial velocity of 1200 m/s. Prior to the deceleration, the helium atoms were excited from the 1s2s1S01s2s{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{S}_{0}1s2s1S0​ metastable state to selected Rydberg-Stark states with a narrow-band tunable UV laser. Complete deceleration could be achieved over a distance of 36 mm and in 60 $\ensuremath{\mu}$s, corresponding to an acceleration of $\ensuremath{-}2.0\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ m/s2{}^{2}2. After deceleration, the atoms were held in stationary electric traps above the chip surface, reaccelerated off the chip, and detected by pulsed electric-field ionization. The decelerator was also used to generate helium Rydberg-atom beams with a final velocity tunable between 0 and 1200 m/s. Transitions between low- and high-field-seeking Rydberg-Stark states were observed during trap loading and are attributed to adiabatic Landau-Zener dynamics at electric fields exceeding the Inglis-Teller field. By comparing the experimental results with the results of particle-trajectory simulations, the velocity distribution of the decelerated atoms was found to be characterized by temperatures ranging between 50 and 200 mK, depending on the magnitude of the electric dipole moment of the Rydberg-Stark states selected prior to the deceleration.