Related papers: Ionization in a frozen Rydberg gas with attractive…
The chemi-ionization (CI) processes in atom-Rydberg-atom collisions are investigated in this contribution. The rate coefficients for CI processes in $\textrm{Li}^{*}(n) + \textrm{Na}$, $\textrm{Li}^{*}(n) + \textrm{Li}$, $\textrm{Na}^{*}(n)…
Ultracold neutral plasmas are formed by photoionizing laser-cooled atoms near the ionization threshold. Through the application of atomic physics techniques and diagnostics, these experiments stretch the boundaries of traditional neutral…
The laser-excitation of Rydberg atoms in ultracold gases is often described assuming that the atomic motion is frozen during the excitation time. We show that this frozen gas approximation can break down for atoms that are held in optical…
Highly excited Rydberg states are usually extremely polarizable and exceedingly sensitive to electric fields. Because of this Rydberg ions confined in electric fields have state-dependent trapping potentials. We engineer a Rydberg state…
Alkaline earth Rydberg atoms are very promising tools for quantum technologies. Their highly excited outer electron provides them with the remarkable properties of Rydberg atoms and, notably, with a huge coupling to external fields or to…
We observe the direct excitation of pairs of Cs atoms from the ground state to molecular states correlating asymptotically to $ns\,n'f$ asymptotes. The molecular resonances are interpreted as originating from the dipole-quadrupole…
We show how optical spectra in dense plasmas are determined by the shift of energy levels as well as the broadening owing to collisions with the plasma particles. In lowest approximation, the interaction with the plasma particles is…
We demonstrate imaging of ions in an atomic gas with ion-Rydberg atom interaction induced absorption. This is made possible by utilizing a multi-photon electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) scheme and the extremely large electric…
Mean-field energy-level shifts arising as a result of strong electrostatic dipole interactions within dilute gases of polarized helium Rydberg atoms have been probed by microwave spectroscopy. The Rydberg states studied had principal…
Rydberg atoms allow for the experimental study of open many-body systems and nonequilibrium phenomena. High dephasing rates are a generic feature of these systems, and therefore they can often be described by rate equations, i.e. in the…
We present a method to design a finite decay rate for excited rotational states in polar molecules. The setup is based on a hybrid system of polar molecules with atoms driven into a Rydberg state. The atoms and molecules are coupled via the…
Cold, dense Rydberg gases produced in a cold-atom trap are investigated using spectroscopic methods and time-resolved electron counting. On the discrete Rydberg resonances we observe large trap losses and long lasting electron emission from…
Cs$_2$ Rydberg-ground molecules consisting of a Rydberg, $nD_{J}$ (33 $\leq$ $n$ $\leq$ 39), and a ground state atom, 6$S_{1/2} (F=$3 or 4$)$, are investigated by photo-association spectroscopy in a cold atomic gas. We observe vibrational…
The formation of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules is a result of the attractive interaction between Rydberg electron and polarizable ground state atom in an ultracold gas. In the nondegenerate case the backaction of the polarizable atom on…
We review experimental and theoretical tools to excite, study and understand strongly interacting Rydberg gases. The focus lies on the excitation of dense ultracold atomic samples close to, or within quantum degeneracy, to high lying…
We perform a comprehensive investigation of the coupling between a Rydberg-dressed atomic gas and an ultra-cold plasma. Using simultaneous time-resolved measurements of both neutral atoms and ions, we show that plasma formation occurs via a…
We observe that when an ultracold ground state cesium (Cs) atom becomes bound within the electronic cloud of an extended Cs electronic orbit, ultralong-range molecules with giant (kilo-Debye) permanent electric dipole moments form. Large…
We study Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) of a cascade three-level atom involving 80$D_{5/2}$ state in a strong interaction regime employing a cesium ultracold cloud. In our experiment, a strong coupling laser couples…
We study the role of retardation in the energy shift of Rydberg states induced by thermal radiation, focusing on the case of temperatures higher than those for which the electric-dipole approximation is expected to apply. As anticipated by…
Rydberg atoms provide a wide range of possibilities to tailor interactions in a quantum gas. Here we report on Rydberg excitation of Bose-Einstein condensed 87Rb atoms. The Rydberg fraction was investigated for various excitation times and…