Observation of a molecular bond between ions and Rydberg atoms using a high-resolution pulsed ion microscope

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:22070004,
            doi = {10.48660/22070004},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/22070004},
            author = {Pfau, Tilman},
            keywords = {Quantum Information},
            language = {en},
            title = {Observation of a molecular bond between ions and Rydberg atoms using a high-resolution pulsed ion microscope},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2022},
            month = {jul},
            note = {PIRSA:22070004 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }
          

Abstract

"We present our recent studies on Rydberg atom-Ion interactions and the spatial imaging of a novel type of molecular ion using a high-resolution ion microscope. The ion microscope provides an exceptional spatial and temporal resolution on a single atom level, where a highly tuneable magnification ranging from 200 to over 1500, a resolution better than 200nm and a depth of field of more than 70µm were demonstrated [1]. A pulsed operation mode of the microscope combined with the excellent electric field compensation enables the study of highly excited Rydberg atoms and ion-Rydberg atom hybrid systems. Using the ion microscope, we observed a novel molecular ion, where the bonding mechanism is based on the interaction between the ionic charge and an induced flipping dipole of a Rydberg atom [2]. Furthermore, we could measure the vibrational spectrum and spatially resolve the bond length and the angular alignment of the molecule. The excellent time resolution of the microscope enables probing of the interaction dynamics between the Rydberg atom and the ion. [1] C. Veit, N. Zuber, O. A. Herrera-Sancho, V. S. V. Anasuri, T. Schmid, F. Meinert, R. Löw, and T. Pfau, Pulsed Ion Microscope to Probe Quantum Gases, Phys. Rev. X 11, 011036 (2021). [2] N. Zuber, V. S. V. Anasuri, M. Berngruber, Y.-Q. Zou, F. Meinert, R. Löw, T. Pfau, Spatial imaging of a novel type of molecular ions, Nature 5, 453 (2022)"