Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 23: Ultra-cold atoms, ions and BEC IV (with Q)

A 23.1: Talk

Wednesday, March 25, 2015, 14:30–14:45, C/HSW

A single Rydberg atom as a chemistry reaction center in a Bose-Einstein condensate — •Michael Schlagmüller, Huan Nguyen, Karl Magnus Westphal, Kathrin Kleinbach, Fabian Böttcher, Tara Cubel Liebisch, Robert Löw, Sebastian Hofferberth, and Tilman Pfau — 5. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart, Germany

A single Rydberg atom can be excited in the center of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), and act as a single impurity in a quantum gas. The high density and low temperature of BECs leads to a fascinating testbed of electron-neutral atom interactions and ion-neutral atom interactions. For a Rydberg state with a principal quantum number of 100, there are thousands of ground-state atoms with which the Rydberg electron interacts, leading to a shift of the Rydberg line which can be used e.g. to observe the BEC phase transition. In addition, collisions between the ionic core of the Rydberg atom with the neighboring ground-state atoms can be studied and can even lead to the formation of ionic molecules. We report on recent findings of ion-neutral-neutral ground-state recombination in this ultra-cold quantum chemistry regime.