Figure 1

(a) Schematic diagram of the Rydberg-Stark deceleration, deflection, and trapping device, with simulated snapshots of a $n=30$, $k=19$ Rydberg H atom cloud at the time of photoexcitation ($t=0\mu \mathrm{s}$) and at times 3, 10, 15, and $200\mu \mathrm{s}$. The electrodes are numbered 1–10 and electrodes 5 (6) and 9 (10) are located above (below) the plane of the figure. (b),(c) Experimental images of ${\mathrm{H}}^{+}$ ions extracted from the off-axis  (b) and on-axis (c) traps. VUV is vacuum ultraviolet.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

(a) Off-axis-trapping voltage pulse sequence. (b)–(e) Schematic diagram of the electrode setup in the $yz$ plane at the time of photoexcitation and after completion of the trapping process (b), in the initial phase of the on-axis deceleration (c), during the 90° deflection process (d), and the final deceleration (e). The lines of constant electric fields range from 10 to $100\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}$ in steps of $10\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}$ (b), and from 20 to $200\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}$ in steps of $20\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}$ in (c)–(e). The dots indicate the center of the Rydberg atom cloud.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

(a)–(c) Simulated phase-space acceptance (gray areas) of the electrostatic deceleration and on-axis (top panels) and off-axis (bottom panels) trapping procedures for $n=30$, $k=19$ Rydberg states of H in the (a) $x$, (b) $y$, and (c) $z$ directions. The photoexcited Rydberg atoms are shown as black dots.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 4

(a) On-axis (open circles) and off-axis (full circles) trap loss of initially prepared $n=30$, $k=19$ Stark states. The dotted line corresponds to the $n=30$, $k=19$ radiative lifetime. The solid lines are single-exponential functions, fitted to the experimental data beyond $200\mu \mathrm{s}$. (b) Measurement of the decay of atoms from the off-axis trap for $n=32$ and $n=36$ hydrogen Rydberg states at an electrode temperature of 125 K up to 2 ms with the corresponding Monte Carlo simulations. (c) ${\mathrm{H}}^{+}$ ion signal detected from the off-axis electrostatic trap as a function of the delay between photoexcitation to the $n=36$ Rydberg-Stark state and PFI for traps with a zero field minimum (open circles) and a $10\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}$ field minimum (full circles). The solid lines represent fitted single-exponential functions.Reuse & Permissions