In a laser-driven Rydberg gas the strong interaction between atoms excited to Rydberg states results in the formation of collective excitations. Atoms within a so-called blockade volume share a single Rydberg excitation, which is dynamically created and annihilated. For sufficiently long times this driven system approaches a steady state, which lends its properties from a maximum entropy state of a Tonks gas. Using this connection we show that spatial correlations between Rydberg atoms are controlled by the number of atoms contained within a blockade volume. For a small number the system favors a disordered arrangement of Rydberg atoms, whereas in the opposite limit Rydberg atoms tend to arrange in an increasingly ordered configuration. We argue that this is an entropic effect which is observable in current experiments.
In an ensemble of laser-driven atoms involving strongly interacting Rydberg states, the excitation probability is usually strongly suppressed. In contrast, here we identify a regime in which the steady-state Rydberg excited fraction is enhanced by the interaction. This effect is associated with the build-up of many-body coherences, induced by coherent multi-photon excitations between collective states. The excitation enhancement should be observable under currently-existing experimental conditions, and may serve as a direct probe for the presence of coherent multi-photon dynamics involving col…
We develop the research achievement of recent work [M. Gärttner, et.al., Phys. Rev. Letts. 113, 233002 (2014)], in which an anomalous excitation enhancement is observed in a three-level Rydberg-atom ensemble with many-body coherence. In our novel theoretical analysis, this effect is ascribed to the existence of a quasi-dark state as well as its avoided crossings to nearby Rydberg-dressed states. Moreover, we show that with an appropriate control of the optical detuning to the intermediate state, the enhancement can evoke a direct facilitation to atom-light coupling that even breaks through the…
The microwave ionization of internally chaotic Rydberg atoms is studied analytically and numerically. The internal chaos is induced by magnetic or static electric fields. This leads to a chaotic enhancement of microwave excitation. The dynamical localization theory gives a detailed description of the excitation process even in a regime where up to few thousands photons are required to ionize one atom. Possible laboratory experiments are also discussed.
We demonstrate improved sensitivity of Rydberg electrometry based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with a ground state repumping laser. Though there are many factors that limit the sensitivity of radio frequency field measurements, we show that repumping can enhance the interaction strength while avoiding additional Doppler or power broadening. Through this method, we nearly double the EIT amplitude without an increase in the width of the peak. A similar increase in amplitude without the repumping field is not possible through simple optimization.We also establish that one of …
Mapping the strong interaction between Rydberg atoms onto single photons via electromagnetically induced transparency enables manipulation of light on the single photon level and novel few-photon devices such as all-optical switches and transistors operated by individual photons. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that Stark-tuned Förster resonances can substantially increase this effective interaction between individual photons. This technique boosts the gain of a single-photon transistor to over 100, enhances the non-destructive detection of single Rydberg atoms to a fidelity beyond 0.8, an…
The ac Stark effect was used to induce resonant energy transfer between translationally cold Rydberg atoms. The Rb Rydberg atoms were obtained by laser excitation of cold atoms from a magneto-optical trap. Using two-photon microwave spectroscopy of the 49s_{1/2}-50s_{1/2} transition, the field strength of a 28.5 GHz dressing field was calibrated. When this dressing field was set at specific field strengths, the two-atom dipole-dipole process 43d_{5/2} + 43d_{5/2} -> 45p_{3/2} + 41f was dramatically enhanced, due to induced degeneracy of the initial and final states. A series of observed resona…
We investigate the use of a split-ring resonator (SRR) incorporated with an atomic-vapor cell to improve the sensitivity and the minimal detectable electric (E) field of Rydberg atom-based sensors. In this approach, a sub-wavelength SRR is placed around an atomic vapor-cell filled with cesium atoms for E-field measurements at 1.3~GHz. The SRR provides a factor of 100 in the enhancement of the E-field measurement sensitivity. Using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with Aulter-Townes splitting, E-field measurements down to 5~mV/m are demonstrated with the SRR, while in the absence …
We predict a resonant enhancement of the nonlinear optical response of an interacting Rydberg gas under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. The enhancement originates from a two-photon process which resonantly couples electronic states of a pair of atoms dressed by a strong control field. We calculate the optical response for the three-level system by explicitly including the dynamics of the intermediate state. We find an analytical expression for the third order susceptibility for a weak classical probe field. The nonlinear absorption displays the strongest resonant behavi…
DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory South（美国陆军研发司令部南实验室）；Department of Physics, The American University（美国大学物理系）；General Technical Services（通用技术服务公司）；Department of Physics, Center for Complex Quantum Systems, The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校复杂量子系统中心物理系）；DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory（美国陆军研发司令部实验室）
Sensitivity Enhancement of S-Band Rydberg Atom Microwave Receiver Using Resonant Cavity
Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院空间应用工程与技术中心）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications（北京邮电大学）
The combination of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with the nonlinear interaction between Rydberg atoms provides an effective interaction between photons. In this paper, we investigate the storage of optical pulses as collective Rydberg atomic excitations in a cold atomic ensemble. By measuring the dynamics of the stored Rydberg polaritons, we experimentally demonstrate that storing a probe pulse as Rydberg polaritons strongly enhances the Rydberg mediated interaction compared to the slow propagation case. We show that the process is characterized by two time scales. At short st…
We use coherent excitation of 3-16 atom ensembles to demonstrate collective Rabi flopping mediated by Rydberg blockade. Using calibrated atom number measurements, we quantitatively confirm the expected $\sqrt{N}$ Rabi frequency enhancement to within 4%. The resulting atom number distributions are consistent with essentially perfect blockade. We then use collective Rabi $π$ pulses to produce ${\cal N}=1,2$ atom number Fock states with fidelities of 62% and 48% respectively. The ${\cal N}=2$ Fock state shows the collective Rabi frequency enhancement without corruption from atom number fluctuatio…
Bridging gaps in Rydberg RF receivers using modulation transfer bandwidth enhancement
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, ENS Paris-Saclay, CentraleSupélec, LuMIn（巴黎萨克雷大学、法国国家科学研究中心、巴黎高等师范学院、中央理工-高等电力学院、LuMIn）；Thales Research and Technology（泰雷兹研究与技术）
We report on the realization of high resolution electron microscopy of Rydberg-excited ultracold atomic samples. The implementation of an ultraviolet laser system allows us to excite the atom, with a single-photon transition, to Rydberg states. By using the electron microscopy technique during the Rydberg excitation of the atoms, we observe a giant enhancement in the production of ions. This is due to $l$-changing collisions, which broaden the Rydberg level and therefore increase the excitation rate of Rydberg atoms. Our results pave the way for the high resolution spatial detection of Rydberg…
We demonstrate a cooperative optical non-linearity caused by dipolar interactions between Rydberg atoms in an ultra-cold atomic ensemble. By coupling a probe transition to the Rydberg state we map the strong dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg pairs onto the optical field. We characterize the non-linearity as a function of electric field and density, and demonstrate the enhancement of the optical non-linearity due to cooperativity.
We have studied the associative ionization of a Rydberg atom and a ground state atom in an ultracold Rydberg gas. The measured scattering cross section is three orders of magnitude larger than the geometrical size of the produced molecule. This giant enhancement of the reaction kinetics is due to an efficient directed mass transport which is mediated by the Rydberg electron. We also find that the total inelastic scattering cross section is given by the geometrical size of the Rydberg electron's wavefunction.
We investigate the collective excitation effect in a scheme where three identical Rydberg atoms are arranged in an equilateral triangular lattice. By using a static electric field polarizing the atomic dipoles, the dipole-dipole interactions between two Rydberg atoms are essentially anisotropic and can even disappear in the several special resonance cases. For that fact, we observe collectively enhanced excitation probability of single Rydberg atom in resonant areas in the case of strong blockade, and that of double or triple Rydberg atoms in the case of partial blockade. To give more evidence…
We theoretically analyze the interactions and decay rates for atoms dressed by multiple laser fields to strongly interacting Rydberg states using a quantum master equation approach. In this framework a comparison of two-level and three-level Rydberg-dressing schemes is presented. We identify a resonant enhancement of the three-level dressed interaction strength which originates from cooperative multiphoton couplings as well as small distance dependent decay rates. In this regime the soft-core shape of the potential is independent of the sign of the bare Rydberg-Rydberg interaction, while its s…
High-resolution photoelectron momentum distributions of Xe atoms ionized by 800-nm linearly polarized laser fields have been traced at intensities from 1.1*1013 to 3.5*1013W/cm2 using velocity-map imaging techniques. At certain laser intensities, the momentum spectrum exhibits a distinct double-ring structure for low-order above-threshold ionization, which appears to be absent at lower or higher laser intensities. By investigating the intensity-resolved photoelectron energy spectrum, we find that this double-ring structure originates from resonant multiphoton ionization involving multiple Rydb…
The reaction between He$^+$ and CH$_3$F forming predominantly CH$_2^+$ and CHF$^+$ has been studied at collision energies $E_{\rm coll}$ between 0 and $k_{\rm B}\cdot 10$~K in a merged-beam apparatus. To avoid heating of the ions by stray electric fields, the reaction was observed within the orbit of a highly excited Rydberg electron. Supersonic beams of CH$_3$F and He($n$) Rydberg atoms with principal quantum number $n= 30$ and 35 were merged and their relative velocity tuned using a Rydberg-Stark decelerator and deflector, allowing an energy resolution of 150 mK. A strong enhancement of the …
We demonstrate a single-photon Rydberg excitation spectroscopy of cesium (Cs) atoms in a room-temperature vapor cell. Cs atoms are excited directly from 6S1/2 ground state to nP3/2 (n = 70 - 100) Rydberg states with a 318.6 nm ultraviolet (UV) laser,and Rydberg excitation spectra are obtained by transmission enhancement of a probe beam resonant to Cs 6S1/2, F = 4 - 6P3/2, F' = 5 transition as partial population on F = 4 ground state are transferred to Rydberg state .Analysis reveals that the observed spectra are velocity-selective spectroscopy of Rydberg state, from which the amplitude and lin…
Interaction between Rydberg atoms can significantly modify Rydberg excitation dynamics. Under a resonant driving field the Rydberg-Rydberg interaction in high-lying states can induce shifts in the atomic resonance such that a secondary Rydberg excitation becomes unlikely leading to the Rydberg blockade effect. In a related effect, off-resonant coupling of light to Rydberg states of atoms contributes to the Rydberg anti-blockade effect where the Rydberg interaction creates a resonant condition that promotes a secondary excitation in a Rydberg atomic gas. Here, we study the light-matter interact…
We develop a theoretical approach for the dynamics of Rydberg excitations in ultracold gases, with a realistically large number of atoms. We rely on the reduction of the single-atom Bloch equations to rate equations, which is possible under various experimentally relevant conditions. Here, we explicitly refer to a two-step excitation-scheme. We discuss the conditions under which our approach is valid by comparing the results with the solution of the exact quantum master equation for two interacting atoms. Concerning the emergence of an excitation blockade in a Rydberg gas, our results are in q…
We present an overview of our recent investigations of long-range interactions in an ultracold Cs Rydberg gas. These interactions are studied by high-resolution photoassociation spectroscopy, using excitation close to one-photon transitions into $n$p$_{3/2}$ Rydberg states with pulsed and continuous-wave ultraviolet laser radiation, and lead to the formation of long-range Cs$_2$ molecules. We observe two types of molecular resonances. The first type originates from the correlated excitation of two atoms into Rydberg-atom-pair states interacting at long range via multipole-multipole interaction…
This work reports on the real-time detection of internal-state dynamics of cold Rb$^{87}$ atoms being excited to the $30D_{5/2}$ Rydberg state via two-photon excitation. A mesoscopic cloud of atoms is overlapped with the mode volume of a confocal optical cavity and optically pumped by two laser beams transverse to the cavity axis. The excitation to Rydberg states changes the collective atom-cavity coupling, which is detected by monitoring the light transmitted through the cavity while being weakly driven. In addition to the damped coherent excitation dynamics and the decay back to the ground s…
The energy dependence of the rates of the reactions between He$^+$ and ammonia (NY$_3$, Y= {H,D}), forming NY$_2^+$, Y and He as well as NY$^+$, Y$_2$ and He, and the corresponding product branching ratios have been measured at low collision energies between 0 and $k_{\mathrm{B}}\cdot40$ K using a recently developed merged-beam technique [Allmendinger {\it et al.}, ChemPhysChem {\bf 17}, 3596 (2016)]. To avoid heating of the ions by stray electric fields, the reactions are observed within the large orbit of a highly excited Rydberg electron. A beam of He Rydberg atoms was merged with a superso…
A highly excited Rydberg atom via electromagnetically induced transparency with two color cascading lasers has extreme sensitivity to electric fields of microwave ranging from 100 MHz to over 1 THz. It can be used as susceptible atom-based microwave communication antennas where the carrier wave usually works exactly resonant to the transition between a pair of adjacent Rydberg states with large electric dipole moment. A technique of superheterodyne with a strong on-resonant local microwave oscillator is employed to induce considerable Autler-Townes splitting where the antennas has a highest dy…
Long-range Rydberg interactions, in combination with electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), give rise to strongly interacting photons where the strength, sign, and form of the interactions are widely tunable and controllable. Such control can be applied to both coherent and dissipative interactions, which provides the potential to generate novel few-photon states. Recently it has been shown that Rydberg-EIT is a rare system in which three-body interactions can be as strong or stronger than two-body interactions. In this work, we study a three-body scattering loss for Rydberg-EIT in a …
We measure nonlocal third-order spatial correlations in non-degenerate ultracold gases of bosonic ($^{84}$Sr) and spin-polarized fermionic ($^{87}$Sr) strontium through studies of the formation rates for ultralong-range trimer Rydberg molecules. The trimer production rate is observed to be very sensitive to the effects of quantum statistics with a strong enhancement of up to a factor of six (3!) in the case of bosonic $^{84}$Sr due to bunching, and a marked reduction for spin-polarized fermionic $^{87}$Sr due to anti-bunching. The experimental results are compared to theoretical predictions an…
Anomalously enhanced lifetimes of low angular momentum Rydberg states in singly charged alkaline-earth metal ions
Institut für Theoretische Physik and Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology, Universität Tübingen（蒂宾根大学理论物理研究所与集成量子科学与技术中心）；School of Physics and Astronomy and Centre for the Mathematics and Theoretical Physics of Quantum Non-Equilibrium Systems, The University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学物理与天文学学院及量子非平衡系统数学与理论物理中心）
Fisher-Based Sensitivity Framework for Rydberg Atom Microwave Electrometry
College of Metrology Measurement and Instrument, China Jiliang University（中国计量大学计量测试与仪器学院）；Department of Physics, Westlake University（西湖大学物理系）；Qianyuan Laboratory, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province（钱源实验室）
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik（马克斯·普朗克量子光学研究所）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）；Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität（路德维希-马克西米利安大学）；Technische Universität München（慕尼黑工业大学）
Motivated by experimental advances [e.g. A. Ga{ë}tan {\it et.al.} Nat. Phys. 5 115 (2009)] that the collective excitation of two Rydberg atoms was observed, we provide an elaborate theoretical study for the dynamical behavior of two-atom Rabi oscillations. In the large-intermediate-detuning case, the two-photon Rabi oscillation is found to be significantly affected by the strength of the interatomic van der Waals interaction. With a careful comparison of the exact numbers and values of the oscillation frequency, we propose a new way to determine the strength of excitation blockade, well agreei…
Critical Microwave Mach-Zehnder-Type Interferometry with Dual-LO Rydberg Atoms
School of physics, Harbin Institute of Technology（哈尔滨工业大学物理学院）；College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University（浙江大学信息与电子工程学院）；Beijing Institute of Radio Measurement（北京无线电测量研究所）；School of Physics and Opotoelectric Engineering, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese（中国科学院大学杭州高等研究院物理与光电工程学院）
The charge transfer (ionization) of hydrogen Rydberg atoms (principal quantum number $n=25-34$) incident at a Cu(100) surface is investigated. Unlike fully metallic surfaces, where the Rydberg electron energy is degenerate with the conduction band of the metal, the Cu(100) surface has a projected bandgap at these energies, and only discrete image states are available through which charge transfer can take place. Resonant enhancement of charge transfer is observed at hydrogen principal quantum numbers for which the Rydberg energy matches the energy of one of the image states. The integrated sur…
We report on the local control of the transition frequency of a spin-$1/2$ encoded in two Rydberg levels of an individual atom by applying a state-selective light shift using an addressing beam. With this tool, we first study the spectrum of an elementary system of two spins, tuning it from a non-resonant to a resonant regime, where "bright" (superradiant) and "dark" (subradiant) states emerge. We observe the collective enhancement of the microwave coupling to the bright state. We then show that after preparing an initial single spin excitation and letting it hop due to the spin-exchange inter…
We experimentally demonstrate robust selective excitation and attenuation of atomic Rydberg level populations in sodium vapor (Na I) using intense laser pulses in the strong field limit ($> 10^{12} W/cm^{2}$). The coherent control of the atomic population and related ionization channels is realized for intensities above the over-the-barrier ionization intensity. A qualitative model predicts that this strong field coherent control arises through the manifestation of a Freeman resonance.
Enhanced Sensitivity in Rydberg Atom Electric Field Sensors through Autler-Townes Effect and Two-Photon Absorption: A Theoretical Analysis Using Many-Mode Floquet Theory
We theoretically investigate high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in Rydberg atoms driven by spatially inhomogeneous laser fields, induced, for instance, by plasmonic enhancement. It is well known that the laser intensity should to exceed certain threshold in order to generate HHG, when noble gas atoms in their ground state are used as an active medium. One way to enhance the coherent light coming from a conventional laser oscillator is to take advantage of the amplification obtained by the so-called surface plasmon polaritons, created when a low intensity laser field is focused onto a metalli…
Dark Matter Detection through Rydberg Atom Transducer
Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；International Shenzhen Quantum Academy（深圳国际量子研究院）；Peking University（北京大学）；Beijing Laser Acceleration Innovation Center（北京激光加速创新中心）；City University of Hong Kong（香港城市大学）；City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute（香港城市大学深圳研究院）；Nanjing University（南京大学）
