title: Magnetic trapping of long-lived cold Rydberg atoms.
abstract: We report on the trapping of long-lived strongly magnetized Rydberg atoms. 85Rb atoms are laser cooled and collected in a superconducting magnetic trap with a strong bias field (2.9 T) and laser excited to Rydberg states. Collisions scatter a small fraction of the Rydberg atoms into long-lived high-angular momentum "guiding-center" Rydberg states, which are magnetically trapped. The Rydberg atomic cloud is examined using a time-delayed, position-sensitive probe. We observe magnetic trapping of these Rydberg atoms for times up to 200 ms. Oscillations of the Rydberg-atom cloud in the trap reveal an average magnetic moment of the trapped Rydberg atoms of approximately -8microB. These results provide guidance for other Rydberg-atom trapping schemes and illuminate a possible route for trapping antihydrogen.
authors.affiliation: FOCUS Center, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA.
authors.forename: J-H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Guest
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Povilus
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hansis
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Raithel