Ultracold Rydberg Atoms in a Ioffe-Pritchard Trap

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the behavior of ultracold Rydberg atoms in a Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap, showing how their large size influences magnetic coupling and enabling tight confinement for one-dimensional quantum gases.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed two-body Hamiltonian for Rydberg atoms in inhomogeneous magnetic fields and demonstrates the feasibility of creating one-dimensional ultracold Rydberg gases.

Findings

Tight confinement of center of mass motion in two dimensions.

Minimal change in electronic structure due to magnetic field.

Potential for generating one-dimensional ultracold Rydberg gases.

Abstract

We discuss the properties of ultracold Rydberg atoms in a Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic field configuration. The derived two-body Hamiltonian unveils how the large size of Rydberg atoms affects their coupling to the inhomogeneous magnetic field. The properties of the compound electronic and center of mass quantum states are thoroughly analyzed. We find very tight confinement of the center of mass motion in two dimensions to be achievable while barely changing the electronic structure compared to the field free case. This paves the way for generating a one-dimensional ultracold quantum Rydberg gas.