Shen Chuyang, Chen Cheng, Wu Xiao-Ling, Dong Shen, Cui Yue, You Li, Tey Meng Khoon
State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Rev Sci Instrum. 2020 Jun 1;91(6):063202. doi: 10.1063/5.0006026.
We present a high-resolution, simple, and versatile system for imaging ultracold Rydberg atoms in optical lattices. The imaging objective is a single aspheric lens [with a working distance of 20.6 mm and a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.51] placed inside the vacuum chamber. Adopting a large-working-distance lens leaves room for electrodes and electrostatic shields to control electric fields around Rydberg atoms. With this setup, we achieve a Rayleigh resolution of 1.10 μm or 1.41λ (λ = 780 nm), limited by the NA of the aspheric lens. For systems of highly excited Rydberg states with blockade radii greater than a few μm, the resolution achieved is sufficient for studying many physical processes of interest.
