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arXiv · 1108.3591

Electronically excited cold ion crystals

Weibin Li·Igor Lesanovsky
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Abstract

The laser excitation of an ion crystal to high lying and long-lived electronic states is a genuine many-body process even if in fact only a single ion is excited. This is a direct manifestation of the strong coupling between internal and external dynamics and becomes most apparent in the vicinity of a structural phase transition. Here we show that utilizing highly excited states offers a new approach to the coherent manipulation of ion crystals. This permits the study of phenomena which rely on a strong coupling between electronic and vibrational dynamics and opens up a route towards the quantum simulation of molecular processes in a Paul trap.

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Weibin Li, Igor Lesanovsky. 2011-08-17. Electronically excited cold ion crystals. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.108.023003

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