Continuous Coupling of Ultracold Atoms to an Ionic Plasma via Rydberg Excitation

TL;DR

This paper investigates the continuous coupling of ultracold Rubidium atoms to an ionic plasma via Rydberg excitation, analyzing atomic losses, blockade effects, and plasma interactions over extended excitation durations.

Contribution

It introduces a method to extend Rydberg excitation duration to several milliseconds, enabling continuous coupling to plasma and detailed analysis of interactions and blockade effects.

Findings

Measured the n-dependence of the blockade effect.

Characterized interactions between excited states, ground state, and plasma.

Confirmed the ponderomotive model for Rydberg states with 20 ≤ n ≤ 120.

Abstract

We characterize the two-photon excitation of an ultracold gas of Rubidium atoms to Rydberg states analysing the induced atomic losses from an optical dipole trap. Extending the duration of the Rydberg excitation to several ms, the ground state atoms are continuously coupled to the formed positively charged plasma. In this regime we measure the $n$-dependence of the blockade effect and we characterise the interaction of the excited states and the ground state with the plasma. We also investigate the influence of the quasi-electrostatic trapping potential on the system, confirming the validity of the ponderomotive model for states with $20\leq n\leq 120$.