We present an optimal protocol to implement a room temperature Rydberg single photon source within an experimental setup based on micro cells filled with thermal vapor. The optimization of a pulsed four wave mixing scheme allows to double the effective Rydberg blockade radius as compared to a simple Gaussian pulse scheme, releasing some of the constrains on the geometry of the micro cells. The performance of the optimized protocol is improved by about 70% with respect to the standard protocol.
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…
Circular Rydberg states are ideal tools for quantum technologies, with huge mutual interactions and extremely long lifetimes in the tens of milliseconds range, two orders of magnitude larger than those of laser-accessible Rydberg states. However, such lifetimes are observed only at zero temperature. At room temperature, blackbody-radiation-induced transfers annihilate this essential asset of circular states, which have thus been used mostly so far in specific, complex cryogenic experiments. We demonstrate here, on a laser-cooled atomic sample, a circular state lifetime of more than one millise…
Rydberg atom-based electrometry enables traceable electric field measurements with high sensitivity over a large frequency range, from gigahertz to terahertz. Such measurements are particularly useful for the calibration of radio frequency and terahertz devices, as well as other applications like near field imaging of electric fields. We utilize frequency modulated spectroscopy with active control of residual amplitude modulation to improve the signal to noise ratio of the optical readout of Rydberg atom-based radio frequency electrometry. Matched filtering of the signal is also implemented. A…
Realization of practical terahertz wireless communications still faces many challenges. The receiver with high sensitivity is important for THz wireless communications. Here we demonstrate a terahertz receiver based on the cesium Rydberg atoms in a room-temperature vapor cell. The minimum detectable THz electric field is calibrated. With this receiver, the phase-sensitive conversion of amplitude-modulated or frequency-modulated terahertz waves into optical signals is performed. The results show that the atomic receiver has many advantages due to its quantum properties. Especially, the long dis…
We investigate the indistinguishability of single photons retrieved from collective Rydberg excitations in cold atomic ensembles. The Rydberg spin waves are created either by off resonant two-photon excitation to the Rydberg state or by Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency. To assess the indistinguishability of the generated single photons, we perform Hong-Ou-Mandel experiments between the single photons and weak coherent states of light. We analyze the indistinguishability of the single photons as a function of the detection window and for photons generated by off-resonant excitat…
We propose and analyze a scheme for realizing the quantum reflection of single photons in a cold Rydberg atomic gas via electromagnetically induced transparency, by which a deep and tunable attractive potential well can be prepared by using stored gate photons. Such a scheme is promising for designing dispersion-type single-photon switches, and may be taken as a quantum device for observing the wave and particle natures of photons simultaneously.
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 preparation of light pulses with well-defined quantum properties requires precise control at the individual photon level. Here, we demonstrate exact and controlled multi-photon subtraction from incoming light pulses. We employ a cascaded system of tightly confined cold atom ensembles with strong, collectively enhanced coupling of photons to Rydberg states. The excitation blockade resulting from interactions between Rydberg atoms limits photon absorption to one per ensemble and engineered dephasing of the collective excitation suppresses stimulated re-emission of the photon. We experimental…
Removing exactly one photon from an arbitrary input pulse is an elementary operation in quantum optics and enables applications in quantum information processing and quantum simulation. Here we demonstrate a deterministic single-photon absorber based on the saturation of an optically thick free-space medium by a single photon due to Rydberg blockade. Single-photon subtraction adds a new component to the Rydberg quantum optics toolbox, which already contains photonic logic building-blocks such as single-photon sources, switches, transistors, and conditional $π$-phase shifts. Our approach is sca…
A velocity-selective spectroscopy technique for studying the spectra from hot Rydberg gases is presented. This method provides high-resolution measurement of the spectrum interval. Based on this method, the velocity-selective hyperfine splitting of intermediate states is measured, as well as the Doppler-free fine-structure splitting of the Rydberg states via two-photon Rydberg excitation in a room-temperature 133Cs vapor cell. The experiment data and theoretical predictions show excellent agreement.
We experimentally study the effects of the anisotropic Rydberg-interaction on $D$-state Rydberg polaritons slowly propagating through a cold atomic sample. In addition to the few-photon nonlinearity known from similar experiments with Rydberg $S$-states, we observe the interaction-induced dephasing of Rydberg polaritons at very low photon input rates into the medium. We develop a model combining the propagation of the two-photon wavefunction through our system with nonperturbative calculations of the anisotropic Rydberg-interaction to show that the observed effect can be attributed to pairwise…
Recently, the notion of two-qubit controlled phase gate via off-resonant modulated driving has been introduced into the neutral atom qubit platform, with respect to both single-photon and two-photon ground-Rydberg transitions. In order to reach a better performance practically, further developments are in need to overcome a few known limitations in previous discussions of this promising method. Here, we thoroughly analyze a variety of modulation styles for two-photon transitions, demonstrating the versatility of off-resonant modulated driving protocols. Furthermore, we show that it is possible…
We demonstrate the phenomenon of blockade in two-photon excitations to the Rydberg state in thermal vapor. A technique based on optical heterodyne is used to measure the dispersion of a probe beam far off resonant to the D2 line of rubidium in the presence of a strong laser beam that couples to the Rydberg state via two-photon resonance. Density dependent suppression of the dispersion peak is observed while coupling to the Rydberg state with principal quantum number, n = 60. The experimental observation is explained using the phenomenon of Rydberg blockade. The blockade radius is measured to b…
We propose how to achieve strong photon antibunching effect in a cavity-QED system coupled with two Rydberg-Rydberg interaction atoms. Via calculating the equal time second order correlation function g(2)(0), we find that the unconventional photon blockade and the conventional photon blockade appear in the atom-driven scheme, and they are both significantly affected by the Rydberg-Rydberg interaction. We also find that under appropriate parameters, the photon antibunching and the mean photon number can be significantly enhanced by combining the conventional photon blockade and the unconvention…
Single photons coupled to atomic systems have shown to be a promising platform for developing quantum technologies. Yet a bright on-demand, highly pure and highly indistinguishable single-photon source compatible with atomic platforms is lacking. In this work, we demonstrate such a source based on a strongly interacting Rydberg system. The large optical nonlinearities in a blockaded Rydberg ensemble convert coherent light into a single-collective excitation that can be coherently retrieved as a quantum field. We observe a single-transverse-mode efficiency up to 0.18(2), $g^{(2)}=2.0(1.5)\times…
Pusan National University（釜山国立大学）；Quantum Sensors Research Center（量子传感器研究中心）；Quantum Science Technology Center, Pusan National University（釜山国立大学量子科学与技术中心）
Three-dimensional three-photon Stark spectroscopy of a single Rb Rydberg atom in an ultrahigh-vacuum glass cell with eight electrodes
Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics SB RAS（列扎诺夫半导体物理研究所西伯利亚分院）；Novosibirsk State University（新西伯利亚国立大学）；Institute of Laser Physics SB RAS（激光物理研究所西伯利亚分院）
We demonstrate a technique based on optical heterodyne detection to measure Rydberg population in thermal atomic vapour. The technique used a probe beam far off resonant to the D2 line of rubidium along with a reference beam with frequency offset by 800 MHz in the presence of a coupling laser that couples to Rydberg state via two-photon resonance. The polarizations of the probe, reference and coupling beams are suitably chosen such that only the probe beam goes through a non-linear phase shift due to two-photon process which is measured relative to the phase shift of the reference beam using o…
We present a pulsed four-wave mixing (FWM) scheme via a Rydberg state to create, store and retrieve collective Rydberg polaritons. The storage medium consists of a gas of thermal Rb atoms confined in a 220 μm thick cell, which are heated above room temperature. The experimental sequence consists of a pulsed excitation of Rydberg polaritons via the D1 line, a variable delay or storage time, and a final retrieval pulse via the D2 line. The lifetime of the Rydberg polaritons is around 1.2 ns, almost entirely limited by the excitation bandwidth and the corresponding motional dephasing of the atoms…
State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics Technologies and Devices, Institute of Laser Spectroscopy, Shanxi University（山西大学激光光谱研究所量子光学技术与器件国家重点实验室）；Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University（山西大学极端光学协同创新中心）；Center for Theoretical Physics and School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Hainan University（海南大学理论物理中心与物理与光电工程学院）；MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurement, Hubei Key Laboratory of Gravitation and Quantum Physics, PGMF, Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学物理学院量子科学与工程研究院引力与量子物理湖北省重点实验室基础物理量测量教育部重点实验室）
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 investigate facilitation induced transparency (FIT) enabled by strong and long-range Rydberg atom interactions between two spatially separated optical channels. In this setting, the resonant two-photon excitation of Rydberg states in a target channel is conditioned by a single Rydberg excitation in a control channel. Through the contactless coupling enabled by the Rydberg interaction, the optical transparency of the target channel can be actively manipulated by steering the optical detuning in the control channel. By adopting a dressed-state picture, we identify two different interference p…
We investigate the interaction of weak light fields with two-dimensional lattices of atoms, in which two-photon coupling establishes conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency and excites high lying atomic Rydberg states. This system features different interactions that act on disparate length scales, from zero-range defect scattering of atomic excitations and finite-range dipole exchange interactions to long-range Rydberg-state interactions that span the entire array. Analyzing their interplay, we identify conditions that yield a nonlinear quantum mirror which coherently splits in…
In a previous letter we studied the giant optical nonlinearities of a Rydberg atomic medium within an optical cavity, in the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. In particular, we calculated the non-linear contributions to the spectrum of the light transmitted through the cavity. In this article we spell out the essential details of this calculation, and we show how it can be extended to higher input photon numbers, and higher order correlation functions. As a relevant example, we calculate and discuss the three-photon correlation function of the transmitted light, and discuss its physical significanc…
We consider the dynamics of intracavity electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in an ensemble of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms. By combining the advantage of variable cavity lifetimes with intracavity EIT and strongly interacting Rydberg dark-state polaritons, we show that such intracavity EIT system could exhibit very strong photon blockade effect.
The long-range interaction between Rydberg-excited atoms endows a medium with large optical nonlinearity. Here, we demonstrate an optical switch to operate on a single photon from an entangled photon pair under a Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency configuration. With the presence of the Rydberg blockade effect, we switch on a gate field to make the atomic medium nontransparent thereby absorbing the single photon emitted from another atomic ensemble via the spontaneous four-wave mixing process. In contrast to the case without a gate field, more than 50% of the photons sent to the …
We present the formation of homonuclear Cs2, K2, and heteronuclear CsK long-range Rydberg molecules in a dual-species magneto-optical trap for 39K and 133Cs by one-photon UV photoassociation. The different ground-state-density dependence of homo- and heteronuclear photoassociation rates and the detection of stable molecular ions resulting from auto-ionization provide an unambiguous assignment. We perform bound-bound millimeter-wave spectroscopy of long-range Rydberg molecules to access molecular states not accessible by one-photon photoassociation. Calculations based on the most recent theoret…
We present a spectral analysis of Rydberg atoms in strong microwave fields using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as an all-optical readout. The measured spectroscopic response enables optical, atom-based electric field measurements of high-power microwaves. In our experiments, microwaves are irradiated into a room-temperature rubidium vapor cell. The microwaves are tuned near the two-photon 65D-66D Rydberg transition and reach an electric field strength of 230V/m, about 20% of the microwave ionization threshold of these atoms. A Floquet treatment is used to model the Rydberg lev…
