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Le Journal de Physique Colloques

RYDBERG ATOMS AND RADIATION IN A RESONANT CAVITY I, THEORY

S. Haroche, Claude Fabre, J. M. Raimond, P. Goy, M. Groß, L. Moi

Published Nov 1, 1982• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We analyze in this paper various aspects of the interaction of Rydberg atoms with resonant electromagnetic cavity. We show that an ensemble of Rydberg atoms coupled to a single field mode at a finite temperature behaves as a single quantum object exhibiting features of Bose-Einstein statistics and Brownian motion. We analyze the transient amplification of the blackbody field by a Rydberg sample and study the change of the photon emission statistics as a function of time. We also show that an isolated Rydberg atom in a cavity undergoes either an oscillating or a damped evolution according to the respective values of the atom to field coupling and cavity damping times and we analyze this effect in term of a modification of the vacuum field modes surrounding the atom. Experiments to check these effects are under progress and will be described in next paper.

DOI
10.1051/jphyscol:1982220

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We analyze in this paper various aspects of the interaction of Rydberg atoms with resonant electromagnetic cavity. We show that an ensemble of Rydberg atoms coupled to a single field mode at a finite temperature behaves as a single quantum object exhibiting features of Bose-Einstein statistics and Brownian motion. We analyze the transient amplification of the blackbody field by a Rydberg sample and study the change of the photon emission statistics as a function of time. We also show that an isolated Rydberg atom in a cavity undergoes either an oscillating or a damped evolution according to the respective values of the atom to field coupling and cavity damping times and we analyze this effect in term of a modification of the vacuum field modes surrounding the atom. Experiments to check these effects are under progress and will be described in next paper.
We present various experiments involving Rydberg atoms interacting with resonant microwave electromagnetic fields inside a cavity, allowing to check different features of the theory presented in the previous paper. We first describe experiments about superradiant emission by Rydberg states in the cavity, also called transient Rydberg atoms maser ; the evolution of the system is detected either on the populations by selective field ionization technique or on the microwave field itself by heterodyne detection. Very low thresholds, down to 100 atoms, for the maser emission have been observed. We then describe various aspects of collective absorption of radiation by very excited atoms including the observation of Rabi nutation in a small applied resonant field, the study of the quantum efficiency of this set-up considered as a microwave photon counter, and finally the unexpected characteristics of the blackbody radiation absorption in the cavity.
Rydberg atoms excited in microwave resonators are ideal systems to test quantum electrodynamics on an unusual scale.1 Owing to their very large electric dipole sizes, these atoms are indeed coupled so strongly to infrared and millimeter-wave radiation that the field of a few photons—ultimately the one of a single photon—stored in a cavity is large enough to induce important transition rates during the atomic time of flight across the cavity. As a result quantum radiative effects are observed in a range of frequencies where usual atomic systems behave as purely classical radiators. The enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate of a single atom prepared in a tuned cavity has already been observed.2 For a resonant cavity with very small losses, a point should be reached where the atom can no longer decay but instead reversibly oscillates between the two states involved in the transition resonant with the cavity mode. Experiments aimed at the observation of this new regime of quantum electrodynamics evolution are under way
Recent experiments with the one-atom maser /1/ have demonstrated that it is possible to study the interaction of single Rydberg atoms with a single quantized mode /2/ of a resonant electromagnetic field in a superconducting cavity. The quality factor is high enough to observe the periodic energy exchange between the atom and the field. The statistical and discrete nature of the photon field leads to new dynamic characteristics such as collapse and revial in the Rabi nutation /3/. Most of the observed effects are purely quantum features /4/.
Cavity qed is the domain of quantum optics which studies the behaviour of single atoms and photons coupled together in an electromagnetic resonator. During the last ten years, various spectacular effects have been observed on such systems, either on the atom’s or on the field’s properties. The presence of a cavity around an atom can produce an alteration of the atomic radiative rates which has been observed in several experiments. Ideally, cavity qed deals with two-level atoms coupled resonantly or nearly resonantly to a single cavity mode. This is of course a simplification of real situations, in which atoms have many levels and the cavity sustains more than one mode. The amplitudes associated to the upper and lower atomic states oscillate as a function of time, revealing the ‘vacuum Rabi oscillation’ effect. The amplitudes associated to the upper and lower atomic states oscillate as a function of time, revealing the ‘vacuum Rabi oscillation’ effect.
Experiments on the interaction of a single atom with a single mode of a resonant electromagnetic field in a cavity are reviewed. The atoms used in these experiments were Rydberg atoms with a very large principal quantum number. Another important ingredient is a superconductivity cavity, the quality factor of which is high enough for a periodic energy exchange between atom and cavity field to be observed. The dynamics of the atom-field interaction predicted by theory was measured. Some of the features are explicitly a consequence of the quantum nature of the electromagnetic field: The statistical and discrete nature of the photon field leads to new dynamic characteristics such as collapse and revivals in the Rabi nutation.