Fast and quasideterministic single ion source from a dipole-blockaded atomic ensemble.

ABSTRACT

We present a fast and quasideterministic protocol for the production of single ions and electrons from a cloud of laser-cooled atoms. The approach is based on a two-step process where first a single Rydberg atom is photoexcited from a dipole-blockade configuration and subsequently ionized by an electric field pulse. We theoretically describe these excitation-ionization cycles via dynamical quantum maps and observe a rich behavior of the ionization dynamics as a function of laser Rabi frequency, pulse duration, and particle number. Our results show that a fast sequential heralded production of single charged particles is achievable even from an unstructured and fluctuating atomic ensemble.