In this thesis, the impact of one to few Rydberg excitations on a large ultracold atomic sample is studied. The main result is the preparation of a single Rydberg atom in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). At principal quantum numbers reaching n=200, tens of thousands of atoms are located inside the orbital of a single Rydberg electron. This model system allows to study the interaction of a single electron with a quantum gas. First experimental results demonstrating the creation of excitations in a BEC by single electrons are discussed and compared to a theoretical model. A wide range of possible further experiments, varying from the phonon-mediated coupling of electrons to the optical imaging of a single electronic orbital, is proposed.
Jonathan B. Balewski