2011/08/17 by Weibin Li, Igor Lesanovsky · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.108.023003
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 023003 (2012) · 5 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2011/08/17 · arxiv updated 2012/01/16
The laser excitation of an ion crystal to high lying and long-lived electronic states is a genuine many-body process even if in fact only a single ion is excited. This is a direct manifestation of the strong coupling between internal and external dynamics and becomes most apparent in the vicinity of a structural phase transition. Here we show that utilizing highly excited states offers a new approach to the coherent manipulation of ion crystals. This permits the study of phenomena which rely on a strong coupling between electronic and vibrational dynamics and opens up a route towards the quantum simulation of molecular processes in a Paul trap.