Laser Trapping of Circular Rydberg Atoms

Abstract

Rydberg atoms are remarkable tools for quantum simulation and computation. They are the focus of an intense experimental activity mainly based on low-angular-momentum Rydberg states. Unfortunately, atomic motion and levels lifetime limit the experimental time-scale to about 100$\mu$s. Here, we demonstrate laser trapping of long-lived circular Rydberg states for up to 10ms. Our method is very general and opens many opportunities for quantum simulation. The 10ms trapping time corresponds to thousands of interaction cycles in a circular-state-based quantum simulator. It is also promising for quantum metrology and quantum information with Rydberg atoms.