Trapped ions in Rydberg-dressed atomic gases

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to create repulsive interactions between trapped ions and Rydberg-dressed atoms, preventing ion heating and maintaining ultracold temperatures in hybrid systems.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical approach to engineer repulsive atom-ion potentials via off-resonant Rydberg dressing, reducing ion heating in ultracold hybrid systems.

Findings

Langevin collisions are suppressed in the ultracold regime.

The system prevents ion heating caused by micromotion.

Ultracold temperatures are maintained despite excess micromotion.

Abstract

We theoretically study trapped ions that are immersed in an ultracold gas of Rydberg-dressed atoms. By off-resonant coupling on a dipole-forbidden transition, the adiabatic atom-ion potential can be made repulsive. We study the energy exchange between the atoms and a single trapped ion and find that Langevin collisions are inhibited in the ultracold regime for these repulsive interactions. Therefore, the proposed system avoids recently observed ion heating in hybrid atom-ion systems caused by coupling to the ion's radio frequency trapping field and retains ultracold temperatures even in the presence of excess micromotion.