Patterned Rydberg excitation and ionization with a spatial light modulator

2014/07/25 by R. M. W. van Bijnen, Rick van Bijnen, Cornelis Ravensbergen +7
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Excitation #Ionization #Laser #Light field #Optics #Physics #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum mechanics #Rydberg formula #Rydberg state #Spatial light modulator #cond-mat.quant-gas #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/17/2/023045

published as New J. Phys. 17 (2015) 023045 · 5 pages, 5 figures

arxiv created 2014/07/25 · openalex publication_date 2015/02/13 · arxiv updated 2015/02/19 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We demonstrate the ability to excite atoms at well-defined, programmable locations in a magneto-optical trap, either to the continuum (ionization), or to a Rydberg state. To this end, excitation laser light is shaped into arbitrary intensity patterns with a spatial light modulator. These optical patterns are sensitive to aberrations of the phase of the light field, occurring while traversing the optical beamline. These aberrations are characterized and corrected without observing the actual light field in the vacuum chamber.

Citations

• Direct Observation of a Sub-Poissonian Number Distribution of Atoms in an Optical Lattice
• Many-body physics with ultracold gases
• Robust Digital Holography For Ultracold Atom Trapping
• Dense atom clouds in a holographic atom trap
• Experimental demonstration of painting arbitrary and dynamic potentials for Bose–Einstein condensates
• Quantum Critical Behavior in Strongly Interacting Rydberg Gases
• Spatially Resolved Observation of Dipole-Dipole Interaction between Rydberg Atoms