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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Excitation of vibrationally-excited ultralong-range strontium Rydberg molecules in quantum gases

Roger Ding, J. D. Whalen, S. K. Kanungo, T. C. Killian, F. B. Dunning, S. Yoshida, Joachim Burgdörfer

Published Jan 1, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Synopsis The photoexcitation rate for ultralong-range Rydberg molecules is sensitive to the initial spatial sepa-ration of the atoms from which they are formed. Here we explore the photoexcitation of different molecular vibrational states as a probe of spatial correlations in a cold atomic gas.
DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/1412/12/122005

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Abstract Photoexcitation rates for creation of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules with 31 ≲ n ≲ 41 in both ground and excited vibrational levels in cold ( T ∼ 900 nK) gases of polarized and unpolarized 87 Sr are presented. The measured production rates of the ν = 0, 1 and 2 vibrational levels reveal rather different n dependences which are analyzed by evaluating the Franck–Condon factors associated with excitation of the different vibrational levels and molecular rotational states. In particular, for gases of spin-polarized fermions, only Rydberg dimers with odd rotational quantum numbers are excited due to the requirement that their wave functions be anti-symmetric with respect to exchange. The data also demonstrate that measurements of the formation of vibrationally-excited ν = 1 molecules can furnish a probe of pair correlations over intermediate length scales.
We present photoexcitation of ultra-long-range Rydberg molecules as a probe of spatial correlations in bosonic and fermionic quantum gases. Rydberg molecules can be created with well-defined internuclear spacing, set by the radius of the outer lobe of the Rydberg electron wave function Rn{R}_{n}Rn​. By varying the principal quantum number nnn of the target Rydberg state, the molecular excitation rate can be used to map the pair-correlation function of the trapped gas g(2)(Rn){g}^{(2)}({R}_{n})g(2)(Rn​). We demonstrate this with ultracold Sr gases and probe pair-separation length scales in the range Rn=1400−−3200{R}_{n}=1400--3200Rn​=1400−−3200 a0{a}_{0}a0​, which are on the order of the thermal de Broglie wavelength for temperatures around 1 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$. We observe bunching for a single-component Bose gas of 84Sr{}^{84}\mathrm{Sr}84Sr and antibunching due to Pauli exclusion at short distances for a polarized Fermi gas of 87Sr{}^{87}\mathrm{Sr}87Sr, revealing the effects of quantum statistics.
Measurements of ultralong-range Rydberg molecule formation in cold gases of fermionic 87Sr atoms are presented. Measurements undertaken using polarised and unpolarised cold atom samples demonstrate that studies of Rydberg molecule formation can provide a window into the important role played by quantum statistics in determining the pair-correlation function, g(2)(R), and, more generally, can furnish a sensitive probe of spatial correlations in quantum gases that is suitable for use in a number of different applications.
In this work I describe the excitation spectra of Rydberg atoms in ultracold gases of strontium and their decay mechanisms. In a few-body regime, we observe a highly structured spectrum re ecting excitation of ultralong-range molecules consisting of one or more ground-state atoms bound to the Rydberg core in potential wells formed by the Rydbergelectron wave function. In a many-body regime, with hundreds of ground-state atoms within the Rydberg orbital, the Rydberg atoms can be viewed as an impurity in a quantum gas, connecting to important concepts in condensed matter physics. The spectrum for impurity excitation displays signatures of polaronic states, in which the Rydberg atom signi cantly perturbs the density of the background gas. Additionally, decay channels of Rydberg excitations are examined by monitoring the time evolution of Rydberg populations. The measured lifetimes reveal new information on the decay processes of Rydberg molecules and place limits on the time scales over which studies involving Rydberg species in cold, dense atomic gases can be undertaken and limit the coherence times for such measurements.
Ultracold atomic systems provide pristine environments for creating and manipulating strongly-interacting quantum systems. The flexibility and utility of ultracold atomic systems comes at the cost of isolation of the quantum system away from environmental perturbations inside of an ultra-high vacuum chamber. This isolation reduces the number of ways that these systems can be probed, in particular, there are relatively few ways to probe correlations in these systems at mesoscopic length scales. In this thesis we present a new technique for probing correlations in ultracold atomic gases using ultralong-range Rydberg molecules. We will present a description of the relevant experimental apparatus and techniques developed for laser cooling and trapping ultracold mixtures of Sr, and a brief theoretical discussion on the relationship between the pair correlation function g(2)(R)g^{(2)}(R)g(2)(R) and the excitation rates of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules. We present two publications: the first on using ultralong-range Rydberg molecules to probe g(2)(R)g^{(2)}(R)g(2)(R) in thermal gases, and the second on the creation of heteronuclear ultralong-range Rydberg molecules from a strongly interacting Bose mixture of 88^{88}88Sr and 84^{84}84Sr. Finally, we will present conclusions and a brief outlook for the future experiments utilizing this method.