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Single charged impurities inside a Bose-Einstein condensate

Sebastian Hofferberth, Universität Stuttgart

(Session 1 : Thursday from 8:30am - 9:15am)

We investigate the interaction of a single electron as well as a single ion with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The charge impurities are produced by exciting exactly one atom from the BEC to a Rydberg state. Since the ionic core and the Rydberg electron have vastly different mass and interaction range with the surrounding ground state, we can consider both parts separately. Firstly, for low-L Rydberg states, the electron wavefunction is fully immersed in the BEC, and we observe electron-phonon coupling. We observe that single electron excite collective modes of the whole condensate. Alternatively, for high-L states the electron can be moved completely outside of the BEC, enabling us to study the interaction of the ionic core with the BEC. We are currently studying ion-ground state Feshbach resonances and investige the possibility of trapping the ion inside the BEC without any external electric fields.