Surface-based decelerators for Rydberg atoms and molecules

Pitt Allmendinger, S. D. Hogan, H. Schmutz and F. Merkt 

Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zurich, Switzerland  

A new generation of surface-based Rydberg-Stark decelerator will be presented. These devices rely on the large electric dipole moments (∼ 1000 Debye) associated with Rydberg states of high principal quantum number. The forces exerted on samples in these states in the presence of inhomogeneous electric fields permit control of their translational motion. Experiments in which samples in pulsed supersonic beams have been accelerated, decelerated and electrostatically trapped using these devices will be presented. Rydberg H atoms moving with initial velocities of ∼ 700 ms−1 have been decelerated to zero-velocity in the laboratory-fixed frame of reference within distances of 6 mm and times of ∼ 15 μs [1]. The development of surface-electrode decelerators represents an extension of previous work on deceleration [2] and electrostatic trapping of Rydberg atoms [3] and molecules [4] using three-dimensional electrode structures. The general design of the surface-electrode decelerator is similar to that developed by Meek et al. [5] for deceleration of ground-state polar molecules, but modified and optimised for the deceleration of beams of Rydberg atoms and molecules. Such devices are of relevance to studies of Rydberg atom/molecule–surface interactions and applications in quantum information processing.

[1] S. D. Hogan, P. Allmendinger, H. Saßmannshausen, H. Schmutz, and F. Merkt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2012, 108, 063008
[2] E. Vliegen, H. J. Wo ̈rner, T. P. Softley, and F. Merkt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2004, 92, 033005
[3] S. D. Hogan and F. Merkt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2008, 100, 043001
[4] S. D. Hogan, Ch. Seiler and F. Merkt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2009, 103, 123001
[5] S. A. Meek, H. L. Bethlem, H. Conrad, and G. Meijer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2008, 100, 153003