Many-body physics with cold Rydberg gases

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• Matt Jones (Durham)
• Friday 04 February 2011, 14:00-15:00
• Physics East 217.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Vincent Boyer.

By transiently exciting cold atoms to Rydberg states, it is possible to switch the strength of the interatomic interactions by twelve orders of magnitude. These strong, long range interactions enable the study of quantum and classical many-body physics. In this talk I will report on recent experimental results from our group in Durham that relate to both of these aspects. By coupling the cold Rydberg gas to light we have shown that the interactions can give rise to a new kind of optical non-linearity that could have applications in quantum optics. In a different approach, in a unique experiment we have used the first two-electron Rydberg gas to probe excitation transfer and the evolution of a Rydberg gas into an ultra-cold plasma.

This talk is part of the Cold Atoms series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Bham Talks
• Cold Atoms
• Physics East 217
• What's on in Physics?

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