Stark spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms in an atom-ion hybrid trap

TL;DR

This study uses Rydberg spectroscopy to measure electric fields in an atom-ion hybrid trap, revealing complex interactions and highlighting interpretative challenges in distinguishing field sources.

Contribution

It introduces a novel spectroscopic approach to probe electric fields in atom-ion hybrid systems and discusses potential sources of observed fields, addressing interpretative ambiguities.

Findings

Detected electric fields up to 250 V/cm affecting Rydberg atoms.

Observed excitation gaps indicating avoided level crossings.

Identified ambiguities in field source attribution between ions and trap.

Abstract

We report on Rydberg spectroscopy of ultracold atoms in an atom-ion hybrid trap for probing the electric fields in a mixture of atoms and ions. We obtain spectra which exhibit excitation gaps corresponding to avoided level crossings in the Stark map. From these measurements we can conclude that the ground state atoms experience electrical fields of up to 250 V/cm. There is, however, a difficulty in interpreting the results, because some data indicate that the electrical fields are produced by the ions while other data indicate that they stem from the Paul trap. We discuss possible scenarios for explaining the measured data, provide first measurements to check these scenarios, and propose methods to finally solve this puzzle.