Abstract
Trapping a Rydberg atom close to a surface is an important step towards the realisation of many proposals for quantum information processing or hybrid quantum systems. One of the challenges in these experiments is posed by the electric field emanating from contaminations on the surface. Here we report on measurements of an electric field created by 87Rb atoms adsorbed on a 25 nm thick layer of SiO2, covering a 90 nm layer of Au. The electric field is measured using a two-photon transition to the and states. The electric field value that we measure is higher than typical values measured above metal surfaces, but is consistent with a recent measurement above a SiO2 surface. In addition, we measure the temporal behaviour of the field and observe that we can reduce it in a single experimental cycle, using ultraviolet light or by mildly locally heating the surface with one of the excitation lasers, whereas the buildup of the field takes thousands of cycles. We explain these results by a change in the adatom distribution on the surface. These results indicate that, while the stray electric field can be reduced, achieving field-free conditions above a silica-coated gold chip remains challenging.
Highlights
The investigation of Rydberg atoms close to a surface is of great importance and interest for areas ranging from surface physics [1,2,3] to quantum information [4,5,6,7,8], in the context of atom chip [9, 10] experiments
A typical example of a noise source in atom chip experiments is stray electric fields caused by adatoms that stick to the surface during the experimental cycle [17, 18]
The future goal of the experiment is to excite atoms to a Rydberg state in traps only 10 mm from the atom chip surface [22, 28], which requires a good knowledge of the local stray electric fields
Summary
The investigation of Rydberg atoms close to a surface is of great importance and interest for areas ranging from surface physics [1,2,3] to quantum information [4,5,6,7,8], in the context of atom chip [9, 10] experiments. [11] makes them natural candidates for efficient entanglement mechanisms in cold atom physics [12,13,14,15]. They can help to investigate the transport of excitation energy [16]. Their high sensitivity to environmental influences [11] makes Rydberg atoms suitable as a surface probe. A typical example of a noise source in atom chip experiments is stray electric fields caused by adatoms that stick to the surface during the experimental cycle [17, 18].
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