Related papers: Ionization in a frozen Rydberg gas with attractive…
We study the field-ionization threshold behavior when a Rydberg atom is ionized by a short single-cycle pulse field. Both hydrogen and sodium atoms are considered. The required threshold field amplitude is found to scale \emph{inversely}…
Double-resonant photoexcitation of nitric oxide in a molecular beam creates a dense ensemble of $50f(2)$ Rydberg states, which evolves to form a plasma of free electrons trapped in the potential well of an NO$^+$ spacecharge. The plasma…
The energy deposition and the atomic processes, such as the electron-capture, ionization, excitation and radiative-decays for slow heavy ions in plasma remains an unsolved fundamental problem. Here we investigate, both experimentally and…
We find that energy surfaces of more than two atoms or molecules interacting via dipole-dipole po- tentials generically possess conical intersections (CIs). Typically only few atoms participate strongly in such an intersection. For the…
Within a dense environment ($\rho \approx 10^{14}\,$atoms/cm$^3$) at ultracold temperatures ($T < 1\,\mu{}\text{K}$), a single atom excited to a Rydberg state acts as a reaction center for surrounding neutral atoms. At these temperatures…
Interfacing light and matter at the quantum level is at the heart of modern atomic and optical physics and enables new quantum technologies involving the manipulation of single photons and atoms. A prototypical atom-light interface is…
We study the long-range interaction of a single ion with a highly excited ultracold Rydberg atom and report on the direct observation of ion-induced Rydberg excitation blockade mediated over tens of micrometer distances. Our hybrid ion-atom…
We study electromagnetically induced transparency of a ladder type configuration in ultracold atomic gases, where the upper level is an electronically highly excited Rydberg state. The strong two-body interaction in the Rydberg state leads…
Experiments in dense, ultracold gases of rubidium Rydberg atoms show a considerable decrease of the radiative excited state lifetimes compared to dilute gases. This accelerated decay is explained by collective and cooperative effects,…
We present a technique for state-selective position detection of cold Rydberg atoms. Ground state Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap are excited to a Rydberg state and are subsequently ionized with a tailored electric field pulse. This…
Population dynamics in weakly-excited clouds of ultracold $^{87}$Rb Rydberg atoms were studied by means of trap loss, fluorescence detection, and state dependent stimulated emission. Rydberg atoms were excited to various nl Rydberg states…
We introduce collisions of solids as a new and efficient ionization mechanism for gas in protoplanetary disks, which especially operates in the dense midplane of protoplanetary disks. This idea is sparked by laboratory experiments where we…
Trilobites are exotic giant dimers with enormous dipole moments. They consist of a Rydberg atom and a distant ground-state atom bound together by short-range electron-neutral attraction. We show that highly polar, polyatomic trilobite…
Cold Rydberg atoms are a promising platform for quantum technologies and combining them with optical waveguides has the potential to create robust quantum information devices. Here, we experimentally observe the excitation of cold rubidium…
The exceptionally large polarisability of highly excited Rydberg atoms (six orders of magnitude higher than ground-state atoms) makes them of great interest in fields such as quantum optics, quantum computing, quantum simulation and…
Atom-atom interactions within a small volume were investigated through the excitation of ultracold Rb atoms. The application of microwaves enhances these interactions, causing the suppression of Rydberg state excitation. The suppression of…
The ion populations most frequently adopted for diagnostics in collisional plasmas are derived from the density independent, coronal approximation. In higher density, lower temperature conditions, ionisation rates are enhanced once…
Understanding Coulomb driven many-body dynamics in ultracold atomic systems far from equilibrium remains an open challenge, particularly when ultrafast excitation channels create competing pathways toward Rydberg gases or ultracold plasmas.…
Quantum information processing with neutral atoms relies on Rydberg excitation for entanglement generation. While the use of heavy divalent or open-shell elements, such as strontium or ytterbium, has benefits due to their optically active…
Ion beam charge neutralization by electron injection is a complex kinetic process. Recent experiments show that resulting self-potential of the beam after neutralization by plasma could be much lower than the temperature of plasma electrons…