Winter school on Physics with Trapped Charged Particles

Enhancing the control over the ion energy in a hybrid atom-ion experiment

Not scheduled

20m

Ecole de Physique des Houches

Speaker

Mr Joschka Wolf (Institut für Quantenmaterie, Universität Ulm)

Description

We investigate the interaction of a laser-cooled trapped ion ($^{138}$Ba$^+$, $^{87}$Rb$^+$ or $^{87}$Rb$_2^+$) with an ultra-cold cloud of optically confined $^{87}$Rb atoms. The ion is held in a linear Paul trap and is immersed in the center of the cold atomic cloud. By controlling a set of parameters, like changing the micromotion energy, we can manipulate the atom-ion collisions and investigate elastic and inelastic collision phenomena. Using the cold atom gas we can achieve sympathetic cooling of the $^{138}$Ba$^+$ to sub-Doppler temperatures (sub mK). To be able to measure the energy after collisions precisely we are setting up a resolved sideband system for the $^{138}$Ba$^+$ ion which I will present. Another project is to implement a dipole trap at 493 nm for the $^{138}$Ba$^+$ ion and to switch off the Paul trap during the atom ion interaction in order to remove the micromotion completely.