Electrostatic trapping and in situ detection of Rydberg atoms above chip-based transmission lines

Beams of helium atoms in Rydberg–Stark states with principal quantum number n = 48 and electric dipole moments of 4600 D have been decelerated from a mean initial longitudinal speed of 2000 m s−1 to zero velocity in the laboratory-fixed frame-of-reference in the continuously moving electric traps of a transmission-line decelerator. In this process accelerations up to $-1.3\times {10}^{7}$ m s−2 were applied, and changes in kinetic energy of ${\rm{\Delta }}{E}_{\mathrm{kin}}=1.3\times {10}^{-20}$ J (${\rm{\Delta }}{E}_{\mathrm{kin}}/e=83$ meV) per atom were achieved. Guided and decelerated atoms, and those confined in stationary electrostatic traps, were detected in situ by pulsed electric field ionisation. The results of numerical calculations of particle trajectories within the decelerator have been used to characterise the observed deceleration efficiencies, and aid in the interpretation of the experimental data.