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Published on: March 30, 2017
Rydberg Electrons in a Bose-Einstein Condensate
Jia Wang1, Marko Gacesa1, R Côté1
1Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA.
Abstract:
We investigate a hybrid system composed of ultracold Rydberg atoms immersed in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The coupling between Rydberg electrons and BEC atoms leads to excitations of phonons, the exchange of which induces a Yukawa interaction between Rydberg atoms. Because of the small electron mass, the effective charge associated with this quasiparticle-mediated interaction can be large. Its range, equal to the BEC healing length, is tunable using Feshbach resonances to adjust the scattering length between BEC atoms. We find that for small healing lengths, the distortion of the BEC can "image" the Rydberg electron wave function, while for large healing lengths the induced attractive Yukawa potentials between Rydberg atoms are strong enough to bind them.
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