Atoms in a superatomic field of laser radiation

Alexander Carmele, Berit Vogell, Kai Stannigel +1 more

We propose a hybrid optomechanical quantum system consisting of a moving membrane strongly coupled to an ensemble of N atoms with a Rydberg state. Due to the strong van-der-Waals interaction between the atoms, the ensemble forms an effective two-level system, a Rydberg superatom, with a collectively enhanced atom–light coupling. Using this superatom imposed collective enhancement strong coupling between membrane and superatom is feasible for parameters within the range of current experiments. The quantum interface to couple the membrane and the superatom can be a pumped single mode cavity, or a laser field in free space, where the Rydberg superatom and the membrane are spatially separated. In addition to the coherent dynamics, we study in detail the impact of the typical dissipation processes, in particular the radiative decay as a source for incoherent superpositions of atomic excitations. We identify the conditions to suppress these incoherent dynamics and thereby a parameter regime for strong coupling. The Rydberg superatom in this hybrid system serves as a toolbox for the nanomechanical resonator allowing for a wide range of applications such as state transfer, sympathetic cooling and non-classical state preparation. As an illustration, we show that a thermally occupied membrane can be prepared in a non-classical state without the necessity of ground state cooling.

Nikolai L. Manakov, Vitalii D Ovsiannikov, Л. П. Рапопорт

Jonathan A. Jones, Dieter Jaksch

Nikolai B. Delone, В. П. Крайнов

Атом РІ сверхатомном поле лазерного излучения (Международная конференция РІ Биг-Скай, шт. Монтана, РЎРЁРђ, 22 – 25 РёСЋРЅСЏ 1991 Рі.), Делоне Рќ.Р‘., Крайнов Р’.Рџ.

Bijun Yang, Y. Li, Saiwei Nie +4 more

Homodyne detection is used to measure the (collective) atomic dipole moment for an atomic ensemble that is prepared in a superposition of spatially phased Dicke states having at most two excitations (a so-called "superatom"). Homodyne detection allows one to isolate the contributions to the radiated intensity that depend linearly on the average value of the collective atomic dipole moment operator. Depending on whether the atom-reference field interference is constructive or destructive, either super-Poisson or sub-Poisson statistics for the combined field is observed.