Controlling Stray Electric Fields on an Atom Chip for Rydberg Experiments

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to control and reduce stray electric fields near atom chips by locally modifying adsorbates with a Rydberg excitation laser, improving the stability of Rydberg atom experiments.

Contribution

The authors demonstrate a novel laser-based technique to manipulate adsorbate distributions, thereby controlling stray electric fields for Rydberg atom experiments near surfaces.

Findings

Stray electric fields can be reduced to below 0.2 V/cm at 78 μm from the chip.

Adjusting laser exposure modifies both the magnitude and sign of the electric field.

The method provides a new tool for stabilizing Rydberg experiments near surfaces.

Abstract

Experiments handling Rydberg atoms near surfaces must necessarily deal with the high sensitivity of Rydberg atoms to (stray) electric fields that typically emanate from adsorbates on the surface. We demonstrate a method to modify and reduce the stray electric field by changing the adsorbates distribution. We use one of the Rydberg excitation lasers to locally affect the adsorbed dipole distribution. By adjusting the averaged exposure time we change the strength (with the minimal value less than $0.2\,\textrm{V/cm}$ at $78\,\mu\textrm{m}$ from the chip) and even the sign of the perpendicular field component. This technique is a useful tool for experiments handling Ryberg atoms near surfaces, including atom chips.