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Laser Physics Letters

Lifetimes of atomic Rydberg states by autocorrelation function

Houcem Jabri, Hichem Eleuch, Tahar Djerad

Published Feb 25, 2005• 48 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have derived the autocorrelation function for the field emitted by a Rydberg atom in a micocavity weakly excited in the strong coupling regime and in the non-resonant case. We propose simple analytical expressions and make use of them to determine the atomic frequency and the mean radiative lifetime of the Rydberg atom. As compared to direct measurements this method is promising.

DOI
10.1002/lapl.200410184

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•Jan 1, 2017•0 citations
We have derived the autocorrelation function for the field emitted by a Rydberg atom in a micocavity weakly excited in the strong coupling regime and in the non-resonant case. We propose simple analytical expressions and make use of them to determine the atomic frequency and the mean radiative lifetime of the Rydberg atom. As compared to direct measurements this method is promising.
We consider a highly excited atom in a good cavity strongly pumped by coherent light. We derive the autocorrelation function of the field emergent from the cavity. We show that the autocorrelation function can be expressed in terms of the atomic dissipation rate. In order to distinguish between the resonant and the non-resonant case, we introduce a parameter interpreted as the measure of the relative detuning between the pump laser and the excited atom frequency. By selecting the parameter time, we determine the lifetime of the excited atom. This method constitutes an interesting alternative for internal atomic parameter determination.
Summary form only given. Measurements of Rydberg states lifetime are a powerful test for calculations involving many-body problems and alkali atoms, and have been used as prototypes for such a study. Cold trapped atoms provide an interesting sample to investigate high excited states lifetime with great advantage compared to traditional atomic beam techniques. Effects on measured lifetimes of the excited atoms such as superradiance and collisions may be controlled and even suppressed by using cold atoms held in a trap. In this work we measured the lifetime of a sequence of states S, P and D as a function of the principal quantum number (n). These highly excited states have remarkable properties due to their weakly bound outer electron energies and their electron's large orbit radius. Due to the very weak binding energies, these states tend to be very sensitive to perturbations, such as external electric fields that are used to detect atoms in these states.
We present a simple and efficient method for measuring the atomic lifetimes in order of tens of microseconds and demonstrate it in the lifetime determination of barium Rydberg states. This method extracts the lifetime information from the time-of-flight spectrum directly, which is much more efficient than other methods such as the time-delayed field ionization and the traditional laser induced fluorescence. The lifetimes determined with our method for barium Rydberg 6snp (n=37–59) series are well coincident with the values deduced from the absolute oscillator strengths of barium which were given in the literature [ J. Phys. B 14 (1981) 4489 , 29 (1996) 655 ] on experiments.
We have measured the radiative lifetimes of ns, np and nd Rydberg states of rubidium in the range 28 < n < 45. To enable long-lived states to be measured, our experiment uses slow-moving Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Two experimental techniques have been adopted to reduce random and systematic errors. First, a narrow-bandwidth pulsed laser is used to excite the target Rydberg state, resulting in minimal shot-to-shot variation in the initial state population. Second, we monitor the target state population as a function of time delay from the laser pulse using a short-duration, millimetre-wave pulse that is resonant with a one- or two-photon transition. We then selectively field ionize the monitor state, and detect the resulting electrons with a micro-channel plate. This signal is an accurate mirror of the target state population, and is uncontaminated by contributions from other states which are populated by black body radiation. Our results are generally consistent with other recent experimental results obtained using a less sensitive method, and are also in excellent agreement with theory.
We report measurements of the fluorescence lifetimes of positronium (Ps) atoms with principal quantum numbers n=10−−19n=10--19n=10−−19. Ps atoms in Rydberg-Stark states were produced via a two-color two-step $1\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}S\ensuremath{\rightarrow}2\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}P\ensuremath{\rightarrow}n\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}S/n\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}D$ excitation scheme and subsequently detected after traveling 1.2 m. The measured time-of-flight distributions were used to determine the mean lifetimes of the Rydberg levels, yielding values ranging from $3\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$ to $26\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$. Our data are in accord with the expected radiative lifetimes of Rydberg-Stark states of Ps.
The work presented in this dissertation concerns dynamics of Rydberg atom lattices in the presence of noise and dissipation. Rydberg atoms possess a number of exaggerated properties, such as a strong van der Waals interaction. The interplay of that interaction, coherent driving and decoherence leads to intriguing non-equilibrium phenomena. Here, we study the non-equilibrium physics of driven atom lattices in the presence of decoherence caused by either laser phase noise or strong decay. In the first case, we compare between global and local noise and explore their effect on the number of excitations and the full counting statistics. We find that both types of noise give rise to a characteristic distribution of the Rydberg excitation number. The main method employed is the Langevin equation but for the sake of efficiency in certain regimes, we use a Markovian master equation and Monte Carlo rate equations, respectively. In the second case, we consider dissipative systems with more general power-law interactions. We determine the phase diagram in the steady state and analyse its generation dynamics using Monte Carlo rate equations. In contrast to nearest-neighbour models, there is no transition to long-range-ordered phases for realistic interactions and resonant driving. Yet, for finite laser detunings, we show that Rydberg atom lattices can undergo a dissipative phase transition to a long-range-ordered antiferromagnetic phase. We identify the advantages of Monte Carlo rate equations over mean field predictions. Having studied the dynamics of Rydberg atom lattices, we study an application of the strong interactions in such systems for quantum information processing. We investigate the coherent exchange of a single photon between a superconducting microwave cavity and a lattice of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms in the presence of local electric field fluctuations plaguing the cavity surface. We show that despite the increased sensitivity of Rydberg states to electric fields, as compared to ground state atoms, the Rydberg dipole-dipole interaction can be used to protect the system against the dephasing induced by the local noise. Using 1/f1/f1/f and laser phase noise models, we show that compared to the case with non-interacting atoms, our system exhibits longer coherence lifetimes and larger retrieval efficiency of the photon after storing into the atoms.