Probing interactions of thermal Sr Rydberg atoms using simultaneous optical and ion detection

Hanley, Ryan K.; Bounds, Alistair D.; Huillery, Paul; Keegan, Niamh C.; Faoro, Riccardo; Bridge, Elizabeth M.; Weatherill, Kevin J.; Jones, Matthew P.A.

doi:10.1088/1361-6455/aa6e79

Probing interactions of thermal Sr Rydberg atoms using simultaneous optical and ion detection

Hanley, Ryan K.; Bounds, Alistair D.; Huillery, Paul; Keegan, Niamh C.; Faoro, Riccardo; Bridge, Elizabeth M.; Weatherill, Kevin J.; Jones, Matthew P.A.

Authors

Ryan K. Hanley

Alistair D. Bounds

Paul Huillery

Niamh C. Keegan

Riccardo Faoro

Elizabeth M. Bridge

Professor Kevin Weatherill k.j.weatherill@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Professor Matthew Jones m.p.a.jones@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

We demonstrate a method for probing interaction effects in a thermal beam of strontium atoms using simultaneous measurements of Rydberg EIT and spontaneously created ions or electrons. We present a Doppler-averaged optical Bloch equation model that reproduces the optical signals and allows us to connect the optical coherences and the populations. We use this to determine that the spontaneous ionization process in our system occurs due to collisions between Rydberg and ground state atoms in the EIT regime. We measure the cross section of this process to be $0.6\pm 0.2\,\,{\sigma }_{\mathrm{geo}}$, where ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{geo}}$ is the geometrical cross section of the Rydberg atom. This result adds complementary insight to a range of recent studies of interacting thermal Rydberg ensembles.

Citation

Hanley, R. K., Bounds, A. D., Huillery, P., Keegan, N. C., Faoro, R., Bridge, E. M., …Jones, M. P. (2017). Probing interactions of thermal Sr Rydberg atoms using simultaneous optical and ion detection. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 50(11), Article 115002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6455/aa6e79

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Apr 21, 2017
Online Publication Date	May 10, 2017
Publication Date	Jun 14, 2017
Deposit Date	May 11, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Jun 14, 2018
Journal	Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Print ISSN	0953-4075
Electronic ISSN	1361-6455
Publisher	IOP Publishing
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	50
Issue	11
Article Number	115002
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6455/aa6e79

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Copyright Statement
Revised version This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6455/aa6e79.