IPB COLLOQUIUM 6 May, 2016

IPB colloquium will be held on Friday, 6 May 2016 at 12:00 in “Dr. Dragan Popović” library reading room of the Institute of Physics Belgrade. The talk entitled

RYDBERG ATOMS SERVED HOT AND COLD

Prof. Dr. Robert Loew (Department of Physics, University of Stuttgart)

Abstract:

The strong interaction between Rydberg atoms has started a new research field with an increasing impact in atomic, optical and molecular physics. Especially Rydberg excitations in ultracold gases serve as a construction kit to study strongly interacting many particle systems, optical non-linearities on the single photon level and long-range Rydberg molecules. But also in thermal gases it is possible to study the interaction effects between Rydberg atoms.

In this talk we will first present our recent results on Rydberg excitations inside Bose-Einstein condensates and how this system qualifies to study chemical reactions in the quantum regime. In the second part we will focus on room temperature Rydberg atoms confined in various vapour cells and how this combination can be used to build novel quantum optical devices for sensing, referencing, and non-linear optics.