22 August 2011 to 16 September 2011
Europe/Stockholm timezone

Exploring few- and many-body physics with frozen Rydberg gases

24 Aug 2011, 16:00
1h
FB53

FB53

Speaker

Matthias Weidemüller (University of Heidelberg)

Description

The investigation of Rydberg atoms has a long history, dating back to the early days of Atomic Physics. Rydberg gases at ultra-low temperatures were first realized only in the last decade by combining advances in atom manipulation and cooling with narrow-band laser excitation of Rydberg states. The exquisite controlof the electronic excitation and the centre-of-mass motion, employing external fields, allows one to exploit the unique and exaggerated properties of Rydberg atoms, namely their large size, large electronic orbiting times, small electronic binding energy, and extremely strong dipole–dipole and van derWaals interactions. The combination of strong atomic interactions and a high level of quantum control, reaching down to the single atom level, gives rise to both new fundamental physics and interesting applications of Rydberg gases, including for example investigations of novel phases of quantum matter, and controlled preparation of atom or photon entanglement. In my presentation I will give a general introduction into the field and discuss some recent experiments of my group.

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