Magnetic Trapping of Long-Lived Cold Rydberg Atoms

Journal Article · Fri Dec 09 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.243001· OSTI ID:20699670

Choi, J -H; Guest, J R; Povilus, A P; Hansis, E; Raithel, G ^[1]

---

1. FOCUS Center, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040 (United States)

We report on the trapping of long-lived strongly magnetized Rydberg atoms. {sup 85}Rb atoms are laser cooled and collected in a superconducting magnetic trap with a strong bias field (2.9 T) and laser excited to Rydberg states. Collisions scatter a small fraction of the Rydberg atoms into long-lived high-angular momentum 'guiding-center' Rydberg states, which are magnetically trapped. The Rydberg atomic cloud is examined using a time-delayed, position-sensitive probe. We observe magnetic trapping of these Rydberg atoms for times up to 200 ms. Oscillations of the Rydberg-atom cloud in the trap reveal an average magnetic moment of the trapped Rydberg atoms of {approx_equal}-8{mu}{sub B}. These results provide guidance for other Rydberg-atom trapping schemes and illuminate a possible route for trapping antihydrogen.

• OSTI ID: 20699670
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 24 Vol. 95; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
ATOM-ATOM COLLISIONS
COOLING
HADRONIC ATOMS
LASERS
MAGNETIC MOMENTS
OSCILLATIONS
PHOTON-ATOM COLLISIONS
RADIOACTIVE CLOUDS
RUBIDIUM 85
RYDBERG STATES
TIME DELAY
TRAPPING
TRAPS