Dressing of ultracold atoms by their Rydberg states in a Ioffe-Pritchard trap

Peter Schmelcher

University of Hamburg, Physics Department, Hamburg, Germany

We explore how the extraordinary properties of Rydberg atoms can be employed to impact the motion of ultracold ground state atoms. Specifically, we use an off-resonant two-photon laser dressing to map features of the Rydberg states on ground state atoms. It is demonstrated that the interplay between the spatially varying quantization axis of the considered Ioffe-Pritchard field and the fixed polarizations of the laser transitions provides the possibility of substantially manipulating the ground state trapping potential.

Back