Erlangen 2022 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 26: Ultra-cold plasmas and Rydberg systems (joint session A/Q)

A 26.1: Talk

Thursday, March 17, 2022, 14:00–14:15, A-H1

Ion-Rydberg interactions observed by a high-resolution ion microscope — •Moritz Berngruber, Nicolas Zuber, Viraatt Anasuri, Yiquan Zou, Florian Meinert, Robert Löw, and Tilman Pfau — 5. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart, Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (IQST)

In this talk, we present the latest experimental results on spatially resolved ion-Rydberg-atom interaction studied with our high-resolution ion microscope. The apparatus provides a highly tunable magnification, ranging from 200 to over 1500, a spatial resolution better than 200 nm and a depth of field of more than 70 µm. These properties and the excellent electric field compensation enable the observation of ion-Rydberg-interaction in cold bulk quantum gases. The direct spatial imaging method allows for in-situ images of a new type of long-range Rydberg-atom-ion molecule in rubidium, which arises from a binding mechanism that is based on the interaction between the ionic charge and a flipping induced dipole of a Rydberg atom [1].
In addition, the ion microscope also allows for spectroscopic studies of the vibrational level structure. Moreover, the good temporal resolution of the detector enables the observation of dynamic phenomena during the interaction process which compared to traditional molecules are slowed down by many orders of magnitude.
[1] Zuber, N., et al. "Spatial imaging of a novel type of molecular ions." arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.02680 (2021).