No Arabic abstract
We report the creation of heteronuclear ultralong-range Rydberg-molecule dimers by excitation of minority $^{88}text{Sr}$ atoms to $5sns,^3S_1$ Rydberg states ($n=31-39$) in a dense background of $^{84}text{Sr}$. We observe an isotope shift of the $ u=0$ vibrational state over this range of $n$ and compare our measurements with a theoretical prediction and a simple scaling argument. With the appropriate choice of principal quantum number the isotope shift is sufficiently large to produce heteronuclear dimers with almost perfect fidelity. When the spectral selectivity is limited, we obtain a lower bound on the ratio of heteronuclear to homonuclear excitation probability of 30 to 1 by measuring the scaling of the molecular excitation rate with varying relative densities of $^{88}text{Sr}$ and $^{84}text{Sr}$ in the ultracold mixture.
The lifetimes and decay channels of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules created in a dense BEC are examined by monitoring the time evolution of the Rydberg population using field ionization. Studies of molecules with values of principal quantum number, $n$, in the range $n=49$ to $n=72$ that contain tens to hundreds of ground state atoms within the Rydberg electron orbit show that their presence leads to marked changes in the field ionization characteristics. The Rydberg molecules have lifetimes of $sim1-5,mu$s, their destruction being attributed to two main processes: formation of Sr$^+_2$ ions through associative ionization, and dissociation induced through $L$-changing collisions. The observed loss rates are consistent with a reaction model that emphasizes the interaction between the Rydberg core ion and its nearest neighbor ground-state atom. The measured lifetimes place strict limits on the time scales over which studies involving Rydberg species in cold, dense atomic gases can be undertaken and limit the coherence times for such measurements.
We present photo-excitation of ultra-long-range Rydberg molecules as a probe of spatial correlations in quantum gases. Rydberg molecules can be created with well-defined internuclear spacing, set by the radius of the outer lobe of the Rydberg electron wavefunction $R_n$. By varying the principal quantum number $n$ of the target Rydberg state, the molecular excitation rate can be used to map the pair-correlation function of the trapped gas $g^{(2)}(R_n)$. We demonstrate this with ultracold Sr gases and probe pair-separation length scales ranging from $R_n = 1400 - 3200$ $a_0$, which are on the order of the thermal de Broglie wavelength for temperatures around 1 $mu$K. We observe bunching for a single-component Bose gas of $^{84}$Sr and anti-bunching due to Pauli exclusion at short distances for a polarized Fermi gas of $^{87}$Sr, revealing the effects of quantum statistics.
We study cold heteronuclear atom ion collisions by immersing a trapped single ion into an ultracold atomic cloud. Using ultracold atoms as reaction targets, our measurement is sensitive to elastic collisions with extremely small energy transfer. The observed energy-dependent elastic atom-ion scattering rate deviates significantly from the prediction of Langevin but is in full agreement with the quantum mechanical cross section. Additionally, we characterize inelastic collisions leading to chemical reactions at the single particle level and measure the energy-dependent reaction rate constants. The reaction products are identified by in-trap mass spectrometry, revealing the branching ratio between radiative and non-radiative charge exchange processes.
We introduce the Rydberg Composite, a new class of Rydberg matter where a single Rydberg atom is interfaced with a dense environment of neutral ground state atoms. The properties of the Composite depend on both the Rydberg excitation, which provides the gross energetic and spatial scales, and on the distribution of ground state atoms within the volume of the Rydberg wave function, which sculpt the electronic states. The latter range from the trilobites, for small numbers of scatterers, to delocalized and chaotic eigenstates for disordered scatterer arrays, culminating in the dense scatterer limit in symmetry-dominated wave functions which promise good control in future experiments. We characterize these scenarios with different theoretical methods, enabling us to obtain scaling behavior for the regular spectrum and measures of chaos and delocalization in the disordered regime. Thus, we obtain a systematic description of the Composite states. The 2D monolayer Composite possesses the richest spectrum with an intricate band structure in the limit of homogeneous scatterers.
Recently, the quest for an ultracold and dense ensemble of polar molecules has attracted strong interest. Polar molecules have bright prospects for novel quantum gases with long-range and anisotropic interactions, for quantum information science, and for precision measurements. However, high-density clouds of ultracold polar molecules have so far not been produced. Here, we report a key step towards this goal. Starting from an ultracold dense gas of heteronuclear 40K-87Rb Feshbach molecules with typical binding energies of a few hundred kHz and a negligible dipole moment, we coherently transfer these molecules into a vibrational level of the ground-state molecular potential bound by >10 GHz. We thereby increase the binding energy and the expected dipole moment of the 40K-87Rb molecules by more than four orders of magnitude in a single transfer step. Starting with a single initial state prepared with Feshbach association, we achieve a transfer efficiency of 84%. While dipolar effects are not yet observable, the presented technique can be extended to access much more deeply bound vibrational levels and ultimately those exhibiting a significant dipole moment. The preparation of an ultracold quantum gas of polar molecules might therefore come within experimental reach.