Erlangen 2022 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 44: Precision spectroscopy of atoms and ions (joint session A/Q)

Q 44.8: Poster

Wednesday, March 16, 2022, 16:30–18:30, P

Rydberg systems under a reaction microscope — •Max Althön, Markus Exner, Philipp Geppert, and Herwig Ott — TU Kaiserslautern

With our MOTRIMS-type reaction microscope we observed collisions between Rydberg atoms and ground state atoms. In these inelastic collisions, the Rydberg electron can change to a lower-lying state. The resulting energy is imparted onto the Rydberg core and the ground state atom as kinetic energy. We measured the final state distribution after these state-changing collisions and observed a wide range of possible final Rydberg states. State-changing collisions are a major decay channel of Rydberg atoms in a dense environment and are of importance for Rydberg molecules. Rydberg molecules are bound by the scattering interaction between the Rydberg electron and a ground state atom. In this context, we aim to directly photoassociate Trilobite molecules, which can be addressed efficiently due to 3-photon excitation. We also show how another type of Rydberg molecule can be used to create a Heavy-Rydberg system, which consists of an ion and anion bound in a high vibrational state.

Our sample consists of ⁸⁷Rb atoms in a crossed optical dipole trap. Using a 3-photon excitation scheme, atoms are excited to atomic or molecular Rydberg states and photoionized by a short laser pulse from a CO₂ laser after a variable evolution time. Following small homogeneous electric fields, the produced ions are subsequently detected by a time and position sensitive micro channel plate detector. This allows momentum resolved measurements of few-body Rydberg dynamics.