Rydberg Molecules and Circular Rydberg states in Cold Atom Clouds.

[摘要] In this dissertation I investigate cold Rydberg atoms and molecules in which the angular-momentum character of the quantum states involved strongly influences their properties and dynamics.In the first part I focus on long-range diatomic Rydberg molecules formed by a rubidium D-state Rydberg atom and a second rubidium atom in its ground state.Spectroscopic measurements of molecular binding energies are presented showing the effect of the Rydberg atom size and fine-structure coupling on the molecular potentials.A theoretical model is introduced that takes into account all relevant angular-momentum couplings between the molecular constituents, successfully reproducing experimental observations.Calculations of adiabatic potentials and binding energies, molecular-state lifetimes, electric and magnetic dipole moments are also presented.In the second part, I describe the production and magnetic trapping of cold circular Rydberg atoms.The circular Rydberg atoms are generated out of a cold gas of rubidium using the crossed-fields method and magnetically trapped. The trapping force is employed to induce center-of-mass oscillations of the trapped atom sample.Trap parameters and observed oscillation frequencies are used to measure the magnetic moments of the circular Rydberg atoms.Trap losses and the atomic internal-state evolution in the 300 Kelvin thermal background are also investigated.

[发布机构] University of Michigan

[效力级别] Rydberg atom

[关键词] Cold atoms;Rydberg atom;Rydberg molecule;Circular Rydberg atom;Atom trapping;Atomic physics;Physics;Science;Applied Physics