Direct observation of ultrafast many-body electron dynamics in an ultracold Rydberg gas

• Verfasst von: Takei, Nobuyuki [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Weidemüller, Matthias [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Direct observation of ultrafast many-body electron dynamics in an ultracold Rydberg gas
• Verf.angabe: Nobuyuki Takei, Christian Sommer, Claudiu Genes, Guido Pupillo, Haruka Goto, Kuniaki Koyasu, Hisashi Chiba, Matthias Weidemüller & Kenji Ohmori
• E-Jahr: 2016
• Jahr: 16 Nov 2016
• Umfang: 12 S.
• Teil: volume:7
• Teil: year:2016
• Teil: extent:12
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 02.06.2020
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Nature Communications
• Ort Quelle: [London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2010
• Jahr Quelle: 2016
• Band/Heft Quelle: 7(2016) Artikel-Nummer 13449, 12 Seiten
• ISSN Quelle: 2041-1723
• DOI: doi:10.1038/ncomms13449
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• K10plus-PPN: 169908355X

Abstract

Many-body correlations govern a variety of important quantum phenomena such as the emergence of superconductivity and magnetism. Understanding quantum many-body systems is thus one of the central goals of modern sciences. Here we demonstrate an experimental approach towards this goal by utilizing an ultracold Rydberg gas generated with a broadband picosecond laser pulse. We follow the ultrafast evolution of its electronic coherence by time-domain Ramsey interferometry with attosecond precision. The observed electronic coherence shows an ultrafast oscillation with a period of 1 femtosecond, whose phase shift on the attosecond timescale is consistent with many-body correlations among Rydberg atoms beyond mean-field approximations. This coherent and ultrafast many-body dynamics is actively controlled by tuning the orbital size and population of the Rydberg state, as well as the mean atomic distance. Our approach will offer a versatile platform to observe and manipulate non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems on the ultrafast timescale.