Rydberg atoms show five universal regimes of electron density response to standing light waves, with transitions at critical wavelengths determined from lattice spectrum bandwidth and density organization.
Microscopic Rydberg electron orbit manipulation with optical tweezers
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abstract
Laser cooling and trapping of atomic matter waves in optical potentials has enabled rapid progress in quantum science, particularly when combined with Rydberg excitation of the atoms to induce long-range interactions. Here, we propose the local manipulation and spatio-temporal sculpting of the electronic matter wave of a Rydberg atom by a laser field focused so that its beam width is smaller than the Rydberg electron orbit. We compute the electronic eigenstates in the presence of a sharply focused Gaussian laser beam, and find strong Rydberg state mixing leading to large kilo-Debye dipole moments. These can be modulated with high bandwidth controlled by the local tweezer intensity. Oscillations in the position-dependent level shifts, analogous to the potential wells allowing ultralong-range Rydberg molecules to form, provide opportunities for eccentric radial trapping of the Rydberg electron via ponderomotive forces acting on sub-orbital length scales.
fields
physics.atom-ph 2years
2026 2representative citing papers
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Universal response of Rydberg manifolds to standing light waves from the microwave to the X-ray regime
Rydberg atoms show five universal regimes of electron density response to standing light waves, with transitions at critical wavelengths determined from lattice spectrum bandwidth and density organization.
- Microscopic Rydberg electron orbit manipulation with optical tweezers