arXiv subjects

Homar Rivera-Rodríguez

Publications and source records attributed to Homar Rivera-Rodríguez.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Electron lattice potentials for ultracold atoms using circular Rydberg orbitals

Recent advances in experiments using individually trapped atoms have enabled precise control over circular Rydberg electrons with exceptionally long lifetimes. We show that these giant and stable electron orbits can form toroidal lattice potentials for ultracold atoms with a period set by the electron's de Broglie wavelength. Unlike conventional static optical lattices, this electron lattice is formed via the electron-atom interaction, which mixes Rydberg circular states with opposite azimuthal phase winding into a standing electronic matter wave. The lattice phase is thereby intrinsically coupled to the atom position. For a pair of atoms, this results in ballistic tunneling motion in the two-atom spatial correlations along the ring, while the single particle dynamics is essentially free rotation. We simulate the dynamics for an experimentally realistic setting that exploits optical tweezers for individual atom control. Our results open a route toward incorporating long range atom-atom interactions mediated by a single electron and, ultimately, realizing small Bose and Fermi gases confined in these microscopic electronic atom traps.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2026

Universal response of Rydberg manifolds to standing light waves from the microwave to the X-ray regime

Standing light waves structure the electronic density of a Rydberg atom in a rich but surprisingly systematic fashion. We uncover these systematics, which are nearly universal across a large range of principal quantum numbers n, by varying the wavelength of the standing light over several orders of magnitude. Thereby, we identify five qualitatively different regimes and give their transition criteria in terms of specific critical wavelengths. The bandwidth of the lattice spectrum, manifested in the difference of energies between the states on the edges of the degeneracy-lifted n-manifolds, as well as the organization of the electron density in coordinate and momentum space are used to rationalize the systematics. A experimental setup is proposed to measure the features in the different regimes.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2026

Microscopic Rydberg electron orbit manipulation with optical tweezers

Laser cooling and trapping of atomic matter waves in optical potentials has enabled rapid progress in quantum science, particularly when combined with Rydberg excitation of the atoms to induce long-range interactions. Here, we propose the local manipulation and spatio-temporal sculpting of the electronic matter wave of a Rydberg atom by a laser field focused so that its beam width is smaller than the Rydberg electron orbit. We compute the electronic eigenstates in the presence of a sharply focused Gaussian laser beam, and find strong Rydberg state mixing leading to large kilo-Debye dipole moments. These can be modulated with high bandwidth controlled by the local tweezer intensity. Oscillations in the position-dependent level shifts, analogous to the potential wells allowing ultralong-range Rydberg molecules to form, provide opportunities for eccentric radial trapping of the Rydberg electron via ponderomotive forces acting on sub-orbital length scales.

physics.atom-ph↗