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Physical Review A

Photoexcitation of n≃305 Rydberg states in the presence of an rf drive field

S. Yoshida, Carlos O Reinhold, Joachim Burgdörfer, S Ye, F. B. Dunning

Published Oct 9, 2012• 23 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The response of highly excited potassium Rydberg states with $n$ $\ensuremath{\sim}305$ to a sinusoidal electric drive field in the radio frequency (100--300 MHz) regime is examined by photoexcitation from the $4s$ ground state using a uv probe beam. The drive field couples many Rydberg levels simultaneously and results in a coherent response that leads to a variety of multiphoton processes. The excitation spectra are analyzed within the framework of Floquet theory and reveal signatures of quantum optical phenomena such as electromagnetically induced transparency and Autler-Townes splitting seen with few-level systems.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.043415

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The response of highly excited potassium Rydberg states with nnn \ensuremath∼305\ensuremath{\sim}305\ensuremath∼305 to a sinusoidal electric drive field in the radio frequency (100--300 MHz) regime is examined by photoexcitation from the 4s4s4s ground state using a uv probe beam. The drive field couples many Rydberg levels simultaneously and results in a coherent response that leads to a variety of multiphoton processes. The excitation spectra are analyzed within the framework of Floquet theory and reveal signatures of quantum optical phenomena such as electromagnetically induced transparency and Autler-Townes splitting seen with few-level systems.
Very-high-n (n~300) Rydberg atoms serve as a powerful tool to study chaos and quantum optical phenomena. Measurements using a series of alternating impulsive kicks applied to potassium Rydberg atoms reveal that a phase space geometric structure called the turnstile governs the ionization process. Studies of the excitation spectra for potassium Rydberg atoms in a strong sinusoidal electric drive field in the radio frequency (100-300 MHz) regime, display quantum optical phenomena including electromagnetically induced transparency and Aulter-Townes splitting, and the data are well explained within the framework of Floquet theory. In order to study the strong dipole-dipole interactions between neutral atoms, new experimental techniques have been developed to create high densities of very-high-n (n~300-500) strontium Rydberg atoms using two- and three-photon excitation. The data demonstrate that high densities of strongly-polarized quasi-one-dimensional states can be produced and form the basis for further manipulation of the atomic wave functions. The strontium Rydberg states are modeled using a two-active-electron theory which produces results in good agreement with experimental observations.
We examine spectral signatures of Rydberg atoms driven with near-resonant dual-tone radio-frequency (RF) fields in the regime of strong driving. We experimentally demonstrate and theoretically model a variety of nonlinear and multiphoton phenomena in the atomic Rydberg response that manifest in the EIT spectra. Our results echo previous studies of two-level atoms driven with bichromatic optical fields. In comparison to the optical studies, the RF-driven Rydberg system utilizes a more complex excitation pathway, and electromagnetic fields from two different spectral regimes: a two-photon optical excitation continuously creates highly excited Rydberg atoms, while RF fields drive resonant coupling between the Rydberg levels and generate strong mixing. Yet, our spectra reflect nearly identical effects of the dual-tone RF fields on the atomic Rydberg observables, showing detuning-dependent splittings and Rabi frequency dependent peak numbers and relative strengths, and avoided crossings at subharmonic resonances. We thus validate previous two-state models in this more complex physical system. In the context of Rydberg electrometry, we use these investigations to explore a technique where we tune a known RF field to observe spectra which give frequency and power of an unknown RF field using the complex dual-tone spectra.
In this paper we study the nonlinear behavior of an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) resonance subject to a coherent driving field. The EIT is associated with a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ three-level system where two hyperfine levels within an electronic ground state are coupled to a common excited state level by a coupling field and a probe field. In addition there is an radio-frequency (rf) field driving a hyperfine transition within the ground state. The paper contrasts two different situations. In one case the rf-driven transition shares a common level with the probed transition and in the second case it shares a common level with the coupled transition. In both cases the EIT resonance is split into a doublet and the characteristics of the EIT doublet are determined by the strength and frequency of the rf-driving field. The doublet splitting originates from the rf-field induced dynamic Stark effect and has close analogy with the Autler-Townes effect observed in three-level pump-probe spectroscopy study. The situation changes when the rf field is strong and the two cases are very different. One is analogous to two $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ three-level systems with EIT resonance associated with each. The other corresponds to a doubly driven three-level system with rf-field-induced electromagnetically induced absorption resonance. The two situations are modeled using numerical solutions of the relevant equation of motion of density matrix. In addition a physical account of their behaviors is given in terms of a dressed state picture.
We study Rydberg atoms modulated by strong radio-frequency (rf) fields with a frequency of 70 MHz. The Rydberg atoms are prepared in a room-temperature cesium cell, and their level structure is probed using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). As the rf field increases from the weak- into the strong-field regime, the range of observed rf-induced phenomena progresses from ac level shifts through increasingly pronounced and numerous rf modulation sidebands to complex state mixing and level crossings with $\mathrm{high}\ensuremath{-}l$ hydrogenlike states. Weak anharmonic admixtures in the rf field generate clearly visible modifications in the Rydberg EIT spectra. A Floquet analysis is employed to model the Rydberg spectra, and good agreement with the experimental observations is found. Our results show that all-optical spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms in vapor cells can serve as an antenna-free, atom-based, and calibration-free technique to measure rf electric fields and to analyze their higher-harmonic contents.
We investigate electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Autler-Townes splitting in Rydberg rubidium atoms for a six-level excitation scheme. In this six-level system, one radio-frequency field simultaneously couples to two high-laying Rydberg states and results in interesting atomic spectra observed in the EIT lines. We present experimental results for several excitation parameters. We also present two theoretical models for this atomic system, where these two models capture different aspects of the observed spectra. One is a six-level model used to predict dominant spectral features and the other a more complex eight-level model used to predict the full characteristics of this system. Both models shows very good agreement with the experimental data.
We investigate and employ optical Rydberg resonances in an atomic vapor cell for measurements of high-intensity VHF-band radio frequency (rf) electric fields. An atomic vapor cell with integrated electrodes is used to generate high-intensity 50--500 MHz rf electric fields reaching $\ensuremath{\sim}5$ kV/m in a submillimeter gap. The fields are measured using Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency as an optical readout of field-sensitive 30DJ30{D}_{J}30DJ​ and 35DJ35{D}_{J}35DJ​ Rydberg states of atoms within the gap. The rf electric field is determined by matching observed spectroscopic markers, including ac level shifts, even-harmonic rf sidebands, and rf-induced avoided crossings in the Rydberg manifold to calculated spectra derived from a nonperturbative Floquet theory. In our measurements, rf field frequencies and electric-field amplitudes are determined to an accuracy of 1.01.0%1.0 and 1.51.5%1.5, respectively. In the atom-field interaction, we observe a transition from a quantum regime, characterized by discrete even-harmonic Floquet states separated by an even multiple of the rf field frequency, into a semiclassical regime at very strong fields, in which the spectrum exhibits unresolved resonances whose strengths are smoothly modulated at a frequency of approximately five times the rf frequency. The underlying physics is explored.