Spontaneous avalanche ionization of a strongly blockaded Rydberg gas

We report the sudden and spontaneous evolution of an initially correlated gas of repulsively interacting Rydberg atoms to an ultracold plasma. Under continuous laser coupling we create a Rydberg ensemble in the strong blockade regime, which at longertimes undergoes an ionization avalanche. By combining optical imaging and ion detection, we access the full information on the dynamical evolution of the system, including the rapid increase in the number of ions and a sudden depletion of the Rydberg and ground state densities. Rydberg-Rydberg interactions are observed to strongly affect the dynamics of plasma formation. Using a coupled rate-equation model to describe our data, we extract the average energy of electrons trapped in the plasma, and an effective cross-section for ionizing collisions between Rydberg atoms and atoms in low-lying states. Our results suggest that the initial correlations of the Rydberg ensemble should persist through the avalanche. This would provide the means to overcome disorder-induced-heating, and offer a route to enter new strongly-coupled regimes.

Anisotropic 2D diffusive expansion of ultra-cold atoms in a disordered potential

We study the horizontal expansion of vertically confined ultra-cold atoms in the presence of disorder. Vertical confinement allows us to realize a situation with a few coupled harmonic oscillator quantum states. The disordered potential is created byan optical speckle at an angle of 30{deg} with respect to the horizontal plane, resulting in an effective anisotropy of the correlation lengths of a factor of 2 in that plane. We observe diffusion leading to non-Gaussian density profiles. Diffusion coefficients, extracted from the experimental results, show anisotropy and strong energy dependence, in agreement with numerical calculations.

A frequency doubled 1534 nm laser system for potassium laser cooling

We demonstrate a compact laser source suitable for the trapping and cooling of potassium. By frequency doubling a fiber laser diode at 1534 nm in a waveguide, we produce 767 nm laser light. A current modulation of the diode allows to generate the tworequired frequencies for cooling in a simple and robust apparatus. We successfully used this laser source to trap ^39 K.