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arXiv · 1801.03846

A Rydberg-dressed Magneto-Optical Trap

A. D. Bounds·N. C. Jackson·R. K. Hanley·R. Faoro·E. M. Bridge·P. Huillery·M. P. A. Jones
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Abstract

We propose and demonstrate the laser cooling and trapping of Rydberg-dressed Sr atoms. By off-resonantly coupling the excited state of a narrow (7 kHz) cooling transition to a high-lying Rydberg state, we transfer Rydberg properties such as enhanced electric polarizability to a stable magneto-optical trap operating at $< 1 \mu K$. By increasing the density to $1 \times 10^{12} \rm{cm^{-3}}$, we show that it is possible to reach a regime where the long-range interaction between Rydberg-dressed atoms becomes comparable to the kinetic energy, opening a route to combining laser cooling with tunable long-range interactions.

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A. D. Bounds, N. C. Jackson, R. K. Hanley, R. Faoro, E. M. Bridge, P. Huillery, M. P. A. Jones. 2018-01-11. A Rydberg-dressed Magneto-Optical Trap. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.120.183401

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