Bulletin of the American Physical Society
47th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Volume 61, Number 8
Monday–Friday, May 23–27, 2016; Providence, Rhode Island
Session G3: Invited Session: Rydberg Atoms and MoleculesInvited
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Chair: Tom Gallagher Room: Ballroom D |
Wednesday, May 25, 2016 8:00AM - 8:30AM |
G3.00001: Ultralong-range Molecules in Strontium Rydberg Gases Invited Speaker: Thomas Killian Alkaline-earth metal atoms are attracting increased attention for studies of ultracold Rydberg gases because of new opportunities created by strong core transitions accessible with visible light and the presence of excited triplet states. We have created and characterized ultralong-range Sr$_{\mathrm{2}}$ molecules formed from one ground-state 5s$^{\mathrm{2}}$ $^{\mathrm{1}}$S$_{\mathrm{0}}$ atom and one atom in a 5sns $^{\mathrm{3}}$S$_{\mathrm{1}}$ Rydberg state. Molecules are formed in a trapped ultracold atomic gas using two-photon excitation, near resonance with the 5s5p $^{\mathrm{3}}$P$_{\mathrm{1}}$ intermediate state. Spectra for both a thermal gas and a Bose-Einstein condensate have been studied, and highly structured vibrational spectra are obtained for molecular dimers, trimers, and tetramers. Measured lifetimes of Rydberg atoms and molecules in dense gases of ground state atoms show that, in marked contrast to earlier measurements involving rubidium Rydberg molecules, the lifetimes of the low-lying molecular vibrational states are very similar to those of the parent Rydberg atoms. This reflects the fact that in strontium there is no p-wave resonance for electron scattering in this energy regime, unlike the situation in rubidium. The absence of a resonance offers advantages for experiments involving strontium Rydberg atoms as impurities in quantum gases and for testing theories of molecular formation and decay. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, May 25, 2016 8:30AM - 9:00AM |
G3.00002: Tailoring interactions with light and Rydberg states Invited Speaker: Thomas Pohl By virtue of their large polarizability, ultracold Rydberg atoms hold promise for exploring long-range interacting quantum systems. In this talk, I will describe different ideas to generate tunable interactions between ultracold atoms via virtual excitation of Rydberg states. This includes finite-range interactions in quantum gases and various kinds of spin interactions in synthetic quantum magnets formed by atomic lattices. Recent experimental results on both approaches will also be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, May 25, 2016 9:00AM - 9:30AM |
G3.00003: Ultralong-range polyatomic Rydberg molecules Invited Speaker: Rosario Gonzalez-Ferez Ultralong-range polyatomic Rydberg molecules are formed when a ground-state atom is bound to a Rydberg atom. The binding mechanism of these Rydberg molecules is based on the low-energy collisions between a Rydberg electron and a ground-state atom and leads to the unusual oscillatory behavior of the adiabatic potential energy curves. If the ground-state atom immersed into the Rydberg wave function is replaced by a heteronuclear diatomic molecule another type of polyatomic Rydberg molecules can form. In this case, the Rydberg electron is coupled to the internal states of the polar ground-state molecule. In this talk, we will explore the electronic structure and rovibrational properties of these ultralong-range polyatomic Rydberg molecule. For the second type of Rydberg molecules, the polar dimer is allowed to rotate in the electric fields generated by the Rydberg electron and Rydberg core as well as an additional external field. We will investigate the metamorphosis of the Born-Oppenheimer potential curves, essential for the binding mechanism, with varying electric field and analyze the resulting properties such as the vibrational structure and the alignment and orientation of the polar dimer [1]. [1] R. Gonzalez-Ferez et al, New J. Phys. 17, 013021 (2015) [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, May 25, 2016 9:30AM - 10:00AM |
G3.00004: Electric field cancellation on quartz by Rb adsorbate-induced negative electron affinity Invited Speaker: James Shaffer We investigate the (0001) surface of single crystal quartz with a submonolayer of Rb adsorbates. Using Rydberg atom electromagnetically induced transparency, we investigate the electric fields resulting from Rb adsorbed on the quartz surface, and measure the activation energy of the Rb adsorbates. We show that the adsorbed Rb induces a negative electron affinity (NEA) on the quartz surface. The NEA surface allows low energy electrons to bind to the surface and cancel the electric field from the Rb adsorbates. Our results are important for integrating Rydberg atoms into hybrid quantum systems and the fundamental study of atom-surface interactions, as well as applications for electrons bound to a 2D surface. [Preview Abstract] |
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