Development of a cold atom apparatus for imaging charged particle beams

We present progress on the design and construction of a cold atom apparatus for non-invasive imaging of an electron beam via Rydberg electrometry. The basic idea of the scheme is to use Ramsey interferometry combined with Rydberg excitation to detect and image the electric field of an electron beam. This work builds on existing research in which an electron beam is profiled using Rydberg 2-photon spectroscopy in a dilute, room temperature atomic vapor. A significant challenge in building this new apparatus is to suppress stray electric fields due to spurious charges. The long-term objective of the experiment is to detect and image single electrons and other charged particles.