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A lattice of Rydberg atoms would be an ideal atomic physics system to study the regime where condensed matter physics and plasma physics meet. Recently it has been proposed by Pohl et al. [1] that with a tailored laser-excitation scheme, in combination with the dipole blockade, it is possible to create ordered structures of highly excited, "frozen" Rydberg atoms. Such Rydberg lattices can be regarded as dilute metallic solids with tunable lattice parameters, and therefore give access to a wide variety of fundamental phenomena.
In our Eindhoven experiment we excited a laser-cooled atom cloud to a Rydberg gas, which subsequently developed into an ultracold plasma. Charged particle beams were extracted from the Rydberg gas and the plasma by a pulsed electric field. We plan an experimental realization of Rydberg atom lattices in our current setup, and we present theoretical results on the basic properties of these systems. [1] T. Pohl, E. Demler, and M. D. Lukin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 043002 (2010). |
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