HOGAN1	Design and implementation of an AC electric trap for atoms in Rydberg states
Type	Experimental
#students	1
Orientation	Why is the scientific problem of interest at all? Recent developments in techniques for controlling the translational motion of atoms and molecules in highly-excited Rydberg states have led to the realisation of compact, surface-based devices for deceleration and electrostatic trapping [1]. Traps of this kind are very well suited to confining samples in low-field-seeking states, those states which increase in energy with increasing electric field strength
How	How is the research going to shed light on the given problem?. However, for several applications, including the confinement of Rydberg anti-hydrogen [2,3], and schemes for quantum information processing, traps for atoms in high-field-seeking states, which decrease in energy with increasing electric field strength, are desirable. To trap atoms in these states it is necessary to construct electrodynamic traps, operated using oscillating (ac) electrical potentials.
What	What is the specific thing that the student will do, and how does it fit inside the overall project? This project will first involve the design and simulation of a surface-electrode--based ac electric trap for helium atoms in Rydberg states. The trap will then be constructed and its operation demonstrated experimentally.
Special Knowledge
Supervisor	Dr Stephen Hogan s.hogan@ucl.ac.uk
References (optional)	[1] S. D. Hogan, P. Allmendinger, H. Sassmannshausen, H. Schmutz, and F. Merkt, ‘A surface electrode Rydberg-Stark decelerator’, Phys. Rev. Lett., 108, 063008 (2012) [2] M. Amoretti et al. ‘Production and detection of cold anti-hydrogen atoms’, Nature, 419, 456 (2002) [3] G. Gabrielse et al. ‘Driven production of cold anti-hydrogen and the first measured distribution of anti-hydrogen states’, Phys. Rev. Lett., 89, 233401 (2002)