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arXiv:1207.3006 · Physical Review A

Excitation suppression due to interactions between microwave-dressed Rydberg atoms

Erik Brekke, J. O. Day, Thad G Walker

Published Sep 7, 2012• 16 citations
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Abstract

Atom-atom interactions within a small volume were investigated through the excitation of ultracold Rb atoms. The application of microwaves enhances these interactions, causing the suppression of Rydberg state excitation. The suppression of Rydberg atom excitation was both qualitatively observed and quantitatively analyzed using a universal scaling law, giving a measure of the atom-atom interaction strength in agreement with theoretical prediction.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.033406

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I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii This thesis reports the first observation of the resonant electric dipole-dipole interaction between cold Rydberg atoms using microwave spectroscopy, the observation of the magnetic field suppression of resonant interactions, and the development of a unique technique for precise magnetic field measurements. ARydbergstate(46d 5/2) of laser cooled 85 Rb atoms has been optically excited. A fraction of these atoms has been transferred to another Rydberg state (47p 3/2 or 45f 5/2,7/2) to introduce resonant electric dipole-dipole interactions. The line broadening of the two-photon 46d 5/2 − 47d 5/2 microwave transition due to the interaction of 46d 5/2 with 47p 3/2 or 45f 5/2,7/2 atoms has been used as a probe of the interatomic interactions. This experiment has been repeated with a DC magnetic field applied. The application of a weak magnetic field ( ≤ 0.6 G) has reduced

•Jan 1, 2006•2 citations
Atom-atom interactions within a small volume were investigated through the excitation of ultracold Rb atoms. The application of microwaves enhances these interactions, causing the suppression of Rydberg state excitation. The suppression of Rydberg atom excitation was both qualitatively observed and quantitatively analyzed using a universal scaling law, giving a measure of the atom-atom interaction strength in agreement with theoretical prediction.
In the laser excitation of ultracold atoms to Rydberg states, we observe a dramatic suppression caused by van der Waals interactions. This behavior is interpreted as a local excitation blockade: Rydberg atoms strongly inhibit excitation of their neighbors. We measure suppression, relative to isolated atom excitation, by up to a factor of 6.4. The dependences of this suppression on both laser irradiance and atomic density are in good agreement with a mean-field model. These results are an important step towards using ultracold Rydberg atoms in quantum information processing.
Experimental control over the strength and angular dependence of interactions between atoms is a key capability for advancing quantum technologies. Here, we use microwave dressing to manipulate and enhance Rydberg-Rydberg interactions in an atomic ensemble. By varying the cloud length relative to the blockade radius and measuring the statistics of the light retrieved from the ensemble, we demonstrate a clear enhancement of the interaction strength due to microwave dressing. These results are successfully captured by a theoretical model that accounts for the excitation dynamics, atomic density distribution, and phase-matched retrieval efficiency. Our approach offers a versatile platform for further engineering interactions by exploiting additional features of the microwave fields, such as polarization and detuning, opening pathways for new quantum control strategies.
Advances in the coherent control of Rydberg atoms have led to an explosion in their use in a wide range of topics, including quantum computation, simulation, sensing, and networking. More specifically, Rydberg-coupled ensembles of atoms interfaced with a single mode of light have enabled studies of fundamental light-matter interactions at the single-photon level and have emerged as a promising platform to realize scalable quantum networking nodes. In the first part of this thesis, we utilize Rydberg blockade to generate large ensembles that host a single Rydberg excitation and use the collective state as a resource to efficiently generate single photons. We further investigate the shelving of the collective Rydberg excitations to the ground-state manifold, where we observe an order of magnitude increase in the coherence time of the excitation. In the latter half of the thesis, we use near-resonant microwave fields to generate microwave-dressed Rydberg states, where we utilize the degrees of freedom of the microwave field to tune the strength, form, and angular dependence of the dipole-dipole interactions. To this end, we develop a robust and highly tunable microwave polarization control system. We use a set of in-vacuum electrodes as microwave antennas. We measure the microwave polarizations produced by each source at the positions of the atoms using a Rydberg EIT-based polarimetry technique. By characterizing the three imperfect sources, we find the control settings necessary to produce \sigma_-, \pi, and \sigma_+ polarized microwaves with >99 % fidelity. We extend our purification techniques to frequencies away from Rydberg resonances by utilizing an auxiliary microwave field, generating two-photon microwave resonances. The high-fidelity microwave polarizations are used to resonantly admix opposite-parity Rydberg states, generating dressed states with dipole-dipole interactions that are longer range and stronger than the bare van der Waals interactions. To characterize the strength of the interactions, we measure the photon-number statistics of the light generated by the ensemble of atoms. By varying the cloud length relative to the blockade radii, we demonstrate a clear enhancement of the interaction strength due to microwave dressing. Our platform enables further engineering of interactions by exploiting the polarization and frequency degrees of freedom of the microwave fields, opening pathways for new quantum control strategies in many different experimental platforms.
Laser-cooled 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms were optically excited to 46d5∕246{d}_{5∕2}46d5∕2​ Rydberg states. A microwave pulse transferred a fraction of the atoms to the 47p3∕247{p}_{3∕2}47p3∕2​ Rydberg state. The resonant electric dipole-dipole interactions between atoms in these two states were probed using the linewidth of the two-photon microwave transition $46{d}_{5∕2}\text{\ensuremath{-}}47{d}_{5∕2}$. The presence of a weak magnetic field $\ensuremath{\approx}0.5\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{G}$ reduced the observed line broadening, indicating that the interaction is suppressed by the field. The field removes some of the energy degeneracies responsible for the resonant interaction, and this is the basis for a quantitative model of the resulting suppression. A technique for the calibration of magnetic field strengths using the $34{s}_{1∕2}\text{\ensuremath{-}}34{p}_{1∕2}$ one-photon transition is also presented.
I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii This thesis reports the first observation of the resonant electric dipole-dipole interaction between cold Rydberg atoms using microwave spectroscopy, the observation of the magnetic field suppression of resonant interactions, and the development of a unique technique for precise magnetic field measurements. ARydbergstate(46d 5/2) of laser cooled 85 Rb atoms has been optically excited. A fraction of these atoms has been transferred to another Rydberg state (47p 3/2 or 45f 5/2,7/2) to introduce resonant electric dipole-dipole interactions. The line broadening of the two-photon 46d 5/2 − 47d 5/2 microwave transition due to the interaction of 46d 5/2 with 47p 3/2 or 45f 5/2,7/2 atoms has been used as a probe of the interatomic interactions. This experiment has been repeated with a DC magnetic field applied. The application of a weak magnetic field ( ≤ 0.6 G) has reduced