Magic optical trapping of Rydberg atoms

C. Jansohn, A. Londoño, Y. Li +3 more

Lukas Ahlheit, Chris Nill, Daniil Svirskiy +6 more

The authors present an experimental and theoretical study of how the geometry of an optical trap influences the magic wavelength for a collective Rydberg excitation, and find the magic trap wavelength where the coherence time in photon storage experiments is maximized. This magic wavelength depends not only on the Rydberg state, but also on the trap geometry due to the wave function of the almost-free Rydberg electron exploring the potential landscape surrounding the core. Hence, it is necessary to take the size of both Rydberg atom and trapping beams into account when trapping Rydberg atoms.

Sarah Elizabeth Anderson

S. Zhang, F. Robicheaux, Mark E. Saffman

We propose blue-detuned optical traps that are suitable for trapping of both ground state and Rydberg excited atoms. Addition of a background compensation field or suitable choice of the trap geometry provides a magic trapping condition for ground and Rydberg atoms at the trap center. Deviations from the magic condition at finite temperature are calculated. Designs that achieve less than 200 kHz differential trap shift between Cs ground and 125s Rydberg states for 10 {\mu}K Cs atoms are presented. Consideration of the trapping potential and photoionization rates

Philippe Hyafil, M. Brune

E. Vliegen