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arXiv:1910.13155 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Photon correlation transients in a weakly blockaded Rydberg ensemble

Charles Möhl, Nicholas L. R. Spong, Yuechun Jiao, Chloe So, Teodora Ilieva, Matthias Weidemüller, Charles S. Adams

Published Feb 5, 2020• 13 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The nonlinear and non-local effects in atomic Rydberg media under electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) make it a versatile platform for fundamental studies and applications in quantum information. In this paper, we study the dynamics of a Rydberg-EIT system in an ensemble that allows for more than one Rydberg excitation in the propagation direction. The density of two-level atoms is such that transient superradiant effects occur. We experimentally observe a cross-over between coherent collective emission (‘flash’) of two-level atoms to a Rydberg dressed regime (‘dressed flash’) under EIT condition. The complex dynamics are characterised using both intensity and time correlation measurements. We show that while steady-state EIT gives a second order correlation g (2) = 0.79 ± 0.04, the Rydberg-dressed flash exhibits anti-bunching down to 0.2 ± 0.04.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/ab728f

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We study the transmission properties of a probe field passing through a sample of $N$-type cold atoms possessing a high Rydberg state. Due to the conditioned dipole blockade of Rydberg excitation, this atomic sample might exhibit a nonlinear optical response in terms of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as manifested by the sensitivity of the transmitted probe intensity and correlation to input probe intensity and correlation. It is of particular interest that the nonlinear EIT response can be opposite (either normal or abnormal) in two different regions of probe detuning, which is a striking feature of the four-level N system of interacting atoms. The realization of both normal and abnormal nonlinear EIT effects in one atomic sample is expected to have wider applications in manipulation of photonic statistics of weak light signals, e.g., to attain prominent photonic bunching and/or antibunching in a dynamic quantum delay or memory process.

Physical Review A•Feb 20, 2013•26 citations
Abstract The nonlinear and non-local effects in atomic Rydberg media under electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) make it a versatile platform for fundamental studies and applications in quantum information. In this paper, we study the dynamics of a Rydberg-EIT system in an ensemble that allows for more than one Rydberg excitation in the propagation direction. The density of two-level atoms is such that transient superradiant effects occur. We experimentally observe a cross-over between coherent collective emission (‘flash’) of two-level atoms to a Rydberg dressed regime (‘dressed flash’) under EIT condition. The complex dynamics are characterised using both intensity and time correlation measurements. We show that while steady-state EIT gives a second order correlation g (2) = 0.79 ± 0.04, the Rydberg-dressed flash exhibits anti-bunching down to 0.2 ± 0.04.
High optical nonlinearities can be achieved at the single photon level by coupling the photon states to strongly interacting Rydberg excitations under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. The nonlinear response in Rydberg quantum optics comes as a direct result of the long range dipole-dipole interactions via Rydberg blockade and interaction induced dephasing. In this thesis, Rydberg quantum optics experiments are performed with two spatially separated mediums with a nonlinear response at the single photon level. Two ultracold rubidium atomic clouds are tightly confined by a pair of in-vacuo aspheric lenses such that only a few Rydberg excitations can exist in each one of the clouds simultaneously. The long range character of the dipole-dipole interactions leads to the generation of quantum states of light. The effective photon-photon interactions are directly observed as an anti-correlation in the simultaneous photon retrieval as a result of the non resonant van der Waals interactions. The collective Rydberg excitations, stored in the non-overlapping mediums, experience an additional spatial non-uniform phase. In addition, we experimentally characterize the cooperative optical response of a cold atomic medium at a single photon level. This aims to exploit the enhancement of the spontaneous emissions decay rate (superradiance) as a dependence of the number of atoms involved in the ensemble. The observed atomic response in two different regimes gives a further understanding of the system dynamics and unlocks a promising potential route towards the implementation in scalable, multichannel quantum optical devices.
Transmission properties of a weak probe field traveling through a sample of interacting cold 87Rb atoms driven into the three-level ladder configuration, which is a typical Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) system, are investigated. Rydberg atoms are considered to be a perfect platform in the research fields of quantum optics and quantum information processing due to some exaggerated properties of Rydberg atoms with high principal quantum number, especially, the dipole-dipole interaction between Rydberg atoms leads to the so-called dipole blockade effect accommodating at most one Rydberg excitation within a mesoscopic volume. The dipole blockade effect may be mapped onto the spectrum of EIT, and the EIT exhibits the cooperative optical nonlinearity which is usually characterized by two indicators, i.e., the probe intensity and the photonic correlation. The cooperative optical nonlinearity is also found here in the phase of transmission spectrum, and the phase can be regarded as the third indicator of nonlinearity in Rydberg EIT. However, there are tremendous differences between the phase and probe transmission (photonic correlation) though they both originate from the conditional polarization. Specifically, the phase is not sensitive to neither the incident probe intensity nor the initial photonic correlation at the resonant probe frequency under the condition of the Autler-Townes (AT) splitting where two other indicators exhibit significant cooperative nonlinearity. The nonlinearity in phase spectrum occurs only in the regime between the resonant probe frequency and the AT splitting and especially is remarkable at the frequency where the probe field is classical. Finally, influence of the principal quantum number and the atomic density on the transmitted phase are examined. In the nonlinear regime, the absolute value of the phase becomes smaller and smaller as the principal quantum number and the atomic density are raised. This indicates that the nonlinearity is strengthened by increasing them. The probe phase provides an attractive supplement to study in depth the cooperative optical nonlinearity in Rydberg EIT and offers us the considerable flexibility to manipulate the propagation and evolution of a quantum light field.
The combination of electromagnetically induced transparency with the nonlinear interaction between Rydberg atoms provides an effective interaction between photons. In this Letter, 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 storage times, we observe a strong enhancement of the interaction due to the reduction of the Rydberg polariton group velocity down to 0. For longer storage times, we observe a further, weaker enhancement dominated by Rydberg induced dephasing of the multiparticle components of the state. In this regime, we observe a nonlinear dependence of the Rydberg polariton coherence time with the input photon number. Our results have direct consequences in Rydberg quantum optics and may enable the test of new theories of strongly interacting Rydberg systems.
We study the optical response of cold rubidium atoms driven into the four-level Y configuration exhibiting two high Rydberg levels in the regime of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Atoms excited to either Rydberg level interact with each other just via self-blockade potentials (I) or also via cross blockade potentials (II). Numerical results show a few interesting quantum phenomena on the transmitted properties of a weak probe field owing to controlled single and double Rydberg blockade. In case (I), it is viable to switch between single-photon outputs with vanishing (invariable) two-photon (three-photon) correlation and photon-pair outputs with vanishing (invariable) three-photon (two-photon) correlation. Such output switch can be easily done by modulating frequencies and intensities of two strong coupling fields to create a degenerate EIT window or two separated EIT windows. In case (II), we find that two-photon and three-photon correlations decrease together at a degenerate EIT window center while increasing together between two separated EIT windows. Such consistent changes are observed because both correlations are modified by the identical polarizability degradation though depending on single and double Rydberg blockade, respectively.
The combination of electromagnetically induced transparency with the nonlinear interaction between Rydberg atoms provides an effective interaction between photons. In this Letter, 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 storage times, we observe a strong enhancement of the interaction due to the reduction of the Rydberg polariton group velocity down to 0. For longer storage times, we observe a further, weaker enhancement dominated by Rydberg induced dephasing of the multiparticle components of the state. In this regime, we observe a nonlinear dependence of the Rydberg polariton coherence time with the input photon number. Our results have direct consequences in Rydberg quantum optics and may enable the test of new theories of strongly interacting Rydberg systems.
We study the transmission properties of a probe field passing through a sample of NNN-type cold atoms possessing a high Rydberg state. Due to the conditioned dipole blockade of Rydberg excitation, this atomic sample might exhibit a nonlinear optical response in terms of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as manifested by the sensitivity of the transmitted probe intensity and correlation to input probe intensity and correlation. It is of particular interest that the nonlinear EIT response can be opposite (either normal or abnormal) in two different regions of probe detuning, which is a striking feature of the four-level N system of interacting atoms. The realization of both normal and abnormal nonlinear EIT effects in one atomic sample is expected to have wider applications in manipulation of photonic statistics of weak light signals, e.g., to attain prominent photonic bunching and/or antibunching in a dynamic quantum delay or memory process.