Interactions between n~100 Rydberg atoms localized within <10 μm prohibit multiple excitations. This “blockade” allows entanglement of spatially resolved atomic pairs and ensembles, including demonstration of a C-NOT gate and collective Rabi flopping.
We use coherent excitation of 3-16 atom ensembles to demonstrate collective Rabi flopping mediated by Rydberg blockade. Using calibrated atom number measurements, we quantitatively confirm the expected √N Rabi frequency enhancement to within 4%. The resulting atom number distributions are consistent with an essentially perfect blockade. We then use collective Rabi π pulses to produce N=1, 2 atom number Fock states with fidelities of 62% and 48%, respectively. The N=2 Fock state shows the collective Rabi frequency enhancement without corruption from atom number fluctuations.
The dipole blockade of multiple Rydberg excitations in mesoscopic atomic ensembles allows the implementation of various quantum information tasks using collective states of cold, trapped atoms. Precise coherent manipulations of the collective ground and single Rydberg excitation states of an atomic ensemble requires the knowledge of the number of atoms with small uncertainty. We present an efficient method to acquire such information by interrogating the atomic ensemble with resonant pulses while monitoring the resulting Rydberg excitations. We show that after several such steps accompanied by feedback the number of atoms in an ensemble can be assessed with high accuracy. This will facilitate the realization of high-fidelity quantum gates, long-term storage of quantum information, and deterministic sources of single photons with Rydberg-blockaded atomic ensembles.
We propose an efficient free-space scheme to create single photons in a well-defined spatiotemporal mode. To that end, we first prepare a single source atom in an excited Rydberg state. The source atom interacts with a large ensemble of ground-state atoms via a laser-mediated dipole-dipole exchange interaction. Using an adiabatic passage with a chirped laser pulse, we produce a spatially extended spin wave of a single Rydberg excitation in the ensemble, accompanied by the transition of the source atom to another Rydberg state. The collective atomic excitation can then be converted to a propagating optical photon via a coherent coupling field. In contrast to previous approaches, our single-photon source does not rely on the strong coupling of a single emitter to a resonant cavity, nor does it require the heralding of collective excitation or complete Rydberg blockade of multiple excitations in the atomic ensemble.