US-Brazil Planning Visit: Rydberg Atom Interactions in Ultracold Gases

University Of Oklahoma Norman Campus, Norman OK

Investigators

Abstract

This international planning grant will support travel by PI Schaffer and two US graduate students to Brazil to work with Brazilian collaborators Professor Luis Marcassa and 5 graduate students at the University of Sao Paulo at Sao Carlos in Brazil and Professor Andre L. de Oliveira at Santa Catarina State University. The aim of this planning grant will be to initiate collaborative research using a Rydberg atom imaging spectrometer and parallel supercomputing codes for calculating cold Rydberg atom interactions in order to investigate collision dynamics and molecule formation in cold Rydberg gases. This work will be aimed at determining their electric field dependence so that a background electric field can be used to control the properties of the cold Rydberg gas.