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Physical Review Letters

Electric Dipole Echoes in Rydberg Atoms

S. Yoshida, Carlos O Reinhold, Joachim Burgdörfer, Wen Kui Zhao, J. J. Mestayer, J. C. Lancaster, F. B. Dunning

Published May 15, 2007• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the first observation of echoes in the electric dipole moment of an ensemble of Rydberg atoms precessing in an external electric field F. Rapid reversal of the field direction is shown to play a role similar to that of a pi pulse in NMR in rephasing a dephased ensemble of electric dipoles resulting in the buildup of an echo. The mechanisms responsible for this are discussed with the aid of classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulations.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.98.203004

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We report the first observation of echoes in the electric dipole moment of an ensemble of Rydberg atoms precessing in an external electric field F. Rapid reversal of the field direction is shown to play a role similar to that of a pi pulse in NMR in rephasing a dephased ensemble of electric dipoles resulting in the buildup of an echo. The mechanisms responsible for this are discussed with the aid of classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulations.
The generation of echoes in the electric dipole moment of a Rydberg wavepacket precessing in an external electric field by reversal of the field is described. When the wavepacket experiences reversible dephasing, large echoes are observed pointing to strong refocusing of the wavepacket. The presence of irreversible dephasing leads to a reduction in the size of the echoes. The effect of irreversible dynamics on echoes is investigated using artificially synthesized noise. Methods to determine the decoherence rate are discussed.
The precession of an electric dipole moment in an external electric field can be reversed by reversing the field direction. This time-reversal operation allows study of coherence in the time evolution of Rydberg Stark wave packets by measuring the resulting echoes. Different sources of reversible dephasing and irreversible dephasing, i.e., decoherence, are discussed in detail. Stochastic interactions with the environment are simulated in a controlled manner by using artificially synthesized noise. The rate of irreversible dephasing is determined from the reduction of the echo amplitude under multiple field reversals.
High resolution laser Stark excitation of np (60<n<85) Rydberg states of ultracold cesium atoms shows an efficient blockade of the excitation attributed to long-range dipole-dipole interaction. The dipole blockade effect is observed as a quenching of the Rydberg excitation depending on the value of the dipole moment induced by the external electric field. Effects of ions which could match the dipole blockade effect are discussed in detail but are ruled out for our experimental conditions. Analytic and Monte Carlo simulations of the excitation of an ensemble of interacting Rydberg atoms agree with the experiments and indicate a major role of the nearest neighboring Rydberg atom.
Dipole-dipole interactions between helium atoms in Rydberg-Stark states with principal quantum number n=53n=53n=53 and approximately linear Stark energy shifts, resulting from induced electric dipole moments of approximately 7900 D, have been investigated experimentally. The experiments were performed in pulsed supersonic metastable helium beams, with particle number densities of up to $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{9}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. In the presence of amplitude-modulated, radio-frequency electric fields, changes in the spectral intensity distributions associated with the transitions to these states that are attributed to dipole-dipole interactions within the ensembles of excited atoms have been observed. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with calculations of the Rydberg energy level structure carried out using Floquet methods, and excitations shared by up to four atoms. The use of these Rydberg-Stark states as sensors for nonresonant broadband radio-frequency electrical noise is also discussed.
We demonstrate a novel time-domain method to probe electronic coherence in ensembles of cold Rydberg atoms coupled via nearly resonant dipole-dipole interactions. Short laser pulses create coherent superpositions of few-electron eigenstates which evolve under the influence of pulsed electric fields. The pulses steer the dynamics, enhancing the probability for finding atoms in np, rather than initially excited ns states. The enhancement reflects the underlying electronic coherence which persists for >10 μs, 2 orders of magnitude longer than previously measured dephasing times in the same system. Simulations suggest that atom motion is responsible for the eventual decoherence.
Abstract Using classical trajectories simulations, we investigate the dynamics of a cold sample of Rydberg atoms with high permanent electric dipole moments. The dipolar state can be created using an adiabatic passage through an avoided crossing between an S-like state and a linear Stark state. The simulations yield the pair-correlation functions (PCF) of the atom samples, which allow us to extract the motion of Rydberg-atom pairs in the many-body system. The results reveal the strength and the anisotropic character of the underlying interaction. The simulation is employed to test the suitability of experimental methods designed to derive interaction parameters from PCF. Insight is obtained about the stability of the method against variation of experimentally relevant parameters. Transient correlations due to interaction-induced heating are observed.