2015/11/12 by Jonathon Sedlacek, J. A. Sedlacek, E. Kim +7
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Adsorption #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Binding energy #Chemistry #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Crystal (programming language) #Electric field #Electron #Electron affinity (data page) #Ion #Ionization #Materials science #Molecular physics #Molecule #Physical chemistry #Physics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Quartz #Rydberg atom #Rydberg formula #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.116.133201
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 133201 (2016) · 10 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2015/11/12 · openalex publication_date 2016/03/30 · arxiv updated 2016/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We investigate the (0001) surface of single crystal quartz with a submonolayer of Rb adsorbates. Using Rydberg atom electromagnetically induced transparency, we investigate the electric fields resulting from Rb adsorbed on the quartz surface, and measure the activation energy of the Rb adsorbates. We show that the adsorbed Rb induces negative electron affinity (NEA) on the quartz surface. The NEA surface allows low energy electrons to bind to the surface and cancel the electric field from the Rb adsorbates. Our results will be important for integrating Rydberg atoms into hybrid quantum systems, as fundamental probes of atom-surface interactions, and for studies of 2D electron gases bound to surfaces.