The properties of a Rydberg atom immersed in an ultracold environment were investigated. Two scenarios were considered, one of which involves the neighbouring ground-state atoms arranged in a spatially structured configuration, while the other involves them distributed randomly in space. To calculate the influence of the multiple ground-state atoms on the Rydberg atom, Fermi-pseudopotential was used, which simplified greatly the numerical effort. In many cases, the few-body interaction can be written down analytically which reveals the symmetry properties of the system. In the structured case, we report the first prediction of the formation of ``Rydberg Borromean trimers''. The few-body interactions and the dynamics of the linear A-B-A trimer, where A is the ground-state atom and B is the Rydberg atom, were investigated in the framework of normal mode analysis. This exotic ultralong-range triatomic bound state exists despite that the Rydberg-ground-state interaction is repulsive. Their lifetimes were estimated using both quantum scattering calculations and semi-classical approximations which are found to be typically sub-microseconds. In the disordered case, the Rydberg-excitation spectra of a frozen-gas were simulated, where the nuclear degrees of freedom can be ignored. The systematic change of the spectral shape with respect to the density of the gas and the excitation of the Rydberg atom were found and studied. Some parts of the spectral shape can be described by simple scaling laws with exponents given by the basic properties of the atomic species such as the polarizability and the zero-energy electron-atom scattering length.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:23624 |
| Date | 03 November 2008 |
| Creators | Liu, Ivan Chen-Hsiu |
| Contributors | Rost, Jan-Michael, Ketzmerick, Roland, Strunz, Walther, Cote, Robin |
| Publisher | Technische Universität Dresden |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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