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arXiv:1110.2112 · Physical Review Letters

GHz Rabi Flopping to Rydberg States in Hot Atomic Vapor Cells

Bernhard Huber, T. Baluktsian, Michael Schlagmüller, A. Kölle, Harald Kübler, R. Löw, Tilman Pfau

Published Dec 5, 2011• 64 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report on the observation of Rabi oscillations to a Rydberg state on a time scale below 1 ns in thermal rubidium vapor. We use a bandwidth-limited pulsed excitation and observe up to 6 full Rabi cycles within a pulse duration of ∼4 ns. We find good agreement between the experiment and numerical simulations based on a surprisingly simple model. This result shows that fully coherent dynamics with Rydberg states can be achieved even in thermal atomic vapor, thus suggesting small vapor cells as a platform for room-temperature quantum devices. Furthermore, the result implies that previous coherent dynamics in single-atom Rydberg gates can be accelerated by 3 orders of magnitude.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.107.243001

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We report on the observation of Rabi oscillations to a Rydberg state on a time scale below 1 ns in thermal rubidium vapor. We use a bandwidth-limited pulsed excitation and observe up to 6 full Rabi cycles within a pulse duration of ∼4 ns. We find good agreement between the experiment and numerical simulations based on a surprisingly simple model. This result shows that fully coherent dynamics with Rydberg states can be achieved even in thermal atomic vapor, thus suggesting small vapor cells as a platform for room-temperature quantum devices. Furthermore, the result implies that previous coherent dynamics in single-atom Rydberg gates can be accelerated by 3 orders of magnitude.
We present evidence for Rydberg-Rydberg interaction in a gas of rubidium atoms above room temperature. Rabi oscillations on the nanosecond time scale to different Rydberg states are investigated in a vapor cell experiment. Analyzing the atomic time evolution and comparing to a dephasing model, we find a scaling with the Rydberg quantum number n that is consistent with van der Waals interaction. Our results show that the interaction strength can be larger than the kinetic energy scale (Doppler width), which is the requirement for realization of thermal quantum devices in the GHz regime.
Photonic quantum devices based on atomic vapors at room temperature combine the advantages of atomic vapors being intrinsically reproducable as well as semiconductor-based concepts being scalable and integrable. One key device in the field of quantum information are on-demand single-photon sources. Comparable to similar realizations using cold atoms [1], it has been supposed to realize room-temperature single-photon sources by combining the two effects of four-wave mixing and Rydberg blockade [2]. Driving the four-wave mixing cycles in a pulsed manner, single photons are generated on demand. The essential conditions of coherence [3,4] and sufficient Rydberg-Rydberg interaction strengths [5] have already been demonstrated. Up to now, the third condition has been missing: That is performing the excitation cycles in a low-dimensional geometry in order to obtain an excitation blockade of the whole volume by only one Rydberg excitation. We realize this spatial confinement in transversal direction by focusing one of the excitation beams by means of a high-NA lens, and in longitudinal direction by using vapor cells of about one micrometer inner thickness (“µ-cells”). In order to deal with reasonable numbers of atoms in such a small volume, we exploit the fact that in thermal equilibrium there are large numbers of adsorbed atoms on the glass surface. We can easily photo-desorb them shortly before the four-wave mixing cycles and increase by this the optical thickness in the excitation volume by one order of magnitude. By means of these techniques we are now able to generate single photons at 780nm. With a Rydberg blockade radius of 1.0µm and a cell thickness of 1.2µm, we observe pure anti-bunching in the light statistics of the coherent emission field, deviating with a significance of three standard deviations from Poisson-type statistics. We obtain generation efficiencies of currently up to 5% per four-wave mixing cycle, depending on experimental parameters. We systematically investigate the disappearance of the anti-bunching by increasing the cell thickness. The results are also compared to measurements at smaller blockade radii. This technique can be further improved by investigating different Rydberg states or different multi-level schemes which allow exploiting the latest developments in laser research. [1] Y. O. Dudin et al., Science 336, 6083 (2012) [2] M. M. Müller et al., PRA 87, 053412 (2013) [3] B. Huber et al., PRL 107, 243001 (2011) [4] B. Huber et al., PRA 90, 053806 (2014) [5] T. Baluktsian et al., PRL 110, 123001 (2013)
We report on time-resolved pulsed four-wave mixing (FWM) signals in a thermal Rubidium vapor involving a Rydberg state. We observe FWM signals with dephasing times up to 7 ns, strongly dependent on the excitation bandwidth to the Rydberg state. The excitation to the Rydberg state is driven by a pulsed two-photon transition on ns timescales. Combined with a cw de-excitation laser, a strongly directional and collective emission is generated according to a combination of the phase matching effect and averaging over Doppler classes. In contrast to a previous report (Huber et al. in Phys Rev A 90: 053806, 2014) using off-resonant FWM, at a resonant FWM scheme we observe additional revivals of the signal shortly after the incident pulse has ended. We infer that this is a revival of motion-induced constructive interference between the coherent emissions of the thermal atoms. The resonant FWM scheme reveals a richer temporal structure of the signals, compared to similar, but off-resonant excitation schemes. A simple explanation lies in the selectivity of Doppler classes. Our numerical simulations based on a four-level model including a whole Doppler ensemble can qualitatively describe the data.
We present a pulsed four-wave mixing 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 $220\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$-thick cell, which is heated above room temperature. The experimental sequence consists of a pulsed excitation of Rydberg polaritons via the D1{D}_{1}D1​ line, a variable delay or storage time, and a final retrieval pulse via the D2{D}_{2}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. The presented scheme combined with a tightly confined atomic ensemble is a good candidate for a deterministic single-photon source, as soon as strong interactions in terms of a Rydberg blockade are added.
We present the coherent excitation of a single Rubidium atom to the Rydberg state 58d3/258{d}_{3/2}58d3/2​ using a two-photon transition. The experimental setup is described in detail, as are experimental techniques and procedures. The coherence of the excitation is revealed by observing Rabi oscillations between ground and Rydberg states of the atom. We analyze the observed oscillations in detail and compare them to numerical simulations which include imperfections of our experimental system. Strategies for future improvements on the coherent manipulation of a single atom in our settings are given.