arXiv · 1706.03717
Creation of Rydberg Polarons in a Bose Gas
Abstract
We report spectroscopic observation of Rydberg polarons in an atomic Bose gas. Polarons are created by excitation of Rydberg atoms as impurities in a strontium Bose-Einstein condensate. They are distinguished from previously studied polarons by macroscopic occupation of bound molecular states that arise from scattering of the weakly bound Rydberg electron from ground-state atoms. The absence of a $p$-wave resonance in the low-energy electron-atom scattering in Sr introduces a universal behavior in the Rydberg spectral lineshape and in scaling of the spectral width (narrowing) with the Rydberg principal quantum number, $n$. Spectral features are described with a functional determinant approach (FDA) that solves an extended Fröhlich Hamiltonian for a mobile impurity in a Bose gas. Excited states of polyatomic Rydberg molecules (trimers, tetrameters, and pentamers) are experimentally resolved and accurately reproduced with FDA.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Explore connections, maps & timelines
F. Camargo, R. Schmidt, J. D. Whalen, R. Ding, G. Woehl Jr., S. Yoshida, J. Burgdörfer, F. B. Dunning, H. R. Sadeghpour, E. Demler, T. C. Killian. 2018-01-17. Creation of Rydberg Polarons in a Bose Gas. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.120.083401
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.