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 Title: MOLECULE FORMATION AND STATE-CHANGING COLLISIONS OF SINGLE RYDBERG ATOMS IN A BEC Author(s): Kleinbach, Kathrin Sophie Contributor(s): Greene, C.H.; Pﾎrez-Rﾒos, Jesﾜs; Pfau, Tilman; Hofferberth, Sebastian; Lﾚw, Robert; Bﾚttcher, Fabian; Westphal, Karl Magnus; Cubel Liebisch, Tara; Schlagmﾟller, Michael Subject(s): Rydberg Atoms and Molecules Abstract: A single Rydberg excitation in the high-density and low-temperature environment of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) leads to a fascinating testbed of low-energy electron-neutral and ion-neutral scattering. In particular the small interparticle spacing in a BEC makes it possible to study the role of ion-neutral interactions in l-changing collisions on time scales much shorter than the Rydberg lifetime. We take advantage of the mean field density shift, caused by elastic electron-neutral collisions, to probe density dependent shells of the $^{87}$Rb BEC and thereby measure the l-changing collision time versus density and principal quantum number. We report on l-changing collisions due to inelastic scattering of the Rydberg electron with a neutral atom located near the Rydberg ionic core. We measure timescales of both the l-changing collision and the Rb$_{2}$ molecule formation of less than one microsecond for n $<$ 100 at the highest BEC densities. We extract a change in kinetic energy of the Rydberg atoms that matches well with the energy gap to the next-lowest manifold. We measure Rb$_{2}$ signal that decreases with increasing principal quantum number. The mechanism and timescales of the l-changing collision are compared with simulations including the motion of the ionic core and neutral atoms, as well as the Rydberg electron. Issue Date: 23-Jun-15 Publisher: International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy Citation Info: ACS Genre: CONFERENCE PAPER/PRESENTATION Type: Text Language: English URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/79336 Date Available in IDEALS: 2016-01-05
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