Trapped Rydberg ions exposed to fast electric field ramps

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler
• Subject Area: Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: from 2016 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 316109062

As a central science case of this application we plan to join twounique features that are existing only for trapped Rydberg ions andhave no counterpart in the systems of neutral Rydberg atoms or intrapped ions in low electronic levels only - that is the combination ofelectric charge and large electric polarizability: The charge of trappedions provides a ideal means to control their position by applying timedependentelectric fields acting via the strong Coulomb interaction.Additionally, Rydberg ions exhibit a large polarizability in electricfields, and thus experiencing a different force. Consequently, we mayexcite a superposition state of ground state and Rydberg state, andexpose it to a time-depending electric field, generated by an up-anddownvoltage ramp applied to the trap control segments. Thisoperation will induce a back-and-forth ion shuttle, however acting witha different force to both electronic components of the wave-packet,which is equivalent to a relative state-depending phase shift. We willgenerate such way a single ion Schrödinger cate state and ademonstrate a novel type of fast two-ion gate operation.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1929: Giant Interactions in Rydberg Systems (GiRyd)
• Major Instrumentation: fast CCD Camera
• Instrumentation Group: 5430 Hochgeschwindigkeits-Kameras (ab 100 Bilder/Sek)