Probing polaron clouds by Rydberg atom spectroscopy

In recent years, Rydberg excitations in atomic quantum gases have become a successful platform to explore quantum impurity problems. A single impurity immersed in a Fermi gas leads to the formation of a polaron, a quasiparticle consisting of the impurity being dressed by the surrounding medium. With...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gievers, Marcel (Author) , Wagner, Marcel (Author) , Schmidt, Richard (Author)
Format: Article (Journal)
Language:English
Published: 31 January 2024
In: Physical review letters
Year: 2024, Volume: 132, Issue: 5, Pages: 1-6
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.053401
Online Access:Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.053401
Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.053401
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Author Notes:Marcel Gievers, Marcel Wagner, and Richard Schmidt
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Summary:In recent years, Rydberg excitations in atomic quantum gases have become a successful platform to explore quantum impurity problems. A single impurity immersed in a Fermi gas leads to the formation of a polaron, a quasiparticle consisting of the impurity being dressed by the surrounding medium. With a radius of about the Fermi wavelength, the density profile of a polaron cannot be explored using in situ optical imaging techniques. In this Letter, we propose a new experimental measurement technique that enables the in situ imaging of the polaron cloud in ultracold quantum gases. The impurity atom induces the formation of a polaron cloud and is then excited to a Rydberg state. Because of the mesoscopic interaction range of Rydberg excitations, which can be tuned by the principal numbers of the Rydberg state, atoms extracted from the polaron cloud form dimers with the impurity. By performing first principle calculations of the absorption spectrum based on a functional determinant approach, we show how the occupation of the dimer state can be directly observed in spectroscopy experiments and can be mapped onto the density profile of the gas particles, hence providing a direct, real-time, and in situ measure of the polaron cloud.
Item Description:Gesehen am 14.06.2024
Physical Description:Online Resource
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.053401