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arXiv · 1506.05955

Dynamically Probing Ultracold Lattice Gases via Rydberg Molecules

Torsten Manthey·Thomas Niederprüm·Oliver Thomas·Herwig Ott
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Abstract

We show that the excitation of long-range Rydberg molecules in a three-dimensional optical lattice can be used as a position- and time-sensitive probe of the site occupancy in the system. To this end, we detect the ions which are continuously generated by the decay of the formed Rydberg molecules. While a superfluid gas shows molecule formation for all parameters, a Mott insulator with $n=1$ filling reveals a strong suppression of the number of formed molecules. In the limit of weak probing, the technique can be used to probe the superfluid to Mott-insulator transition in real-time. Our method can be extended to higher fillings and has various applications for the real-time diagnosis and manipulation of ultracold lattice gases.

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Torsten Manthey, Thomas Niederprüm, Oliver Thomas, Herwig Ott. 2015-06-19. Dynamically Probing Ultracold Lattice Gases via Rydberg Molecules. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/10/103024

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