Europhysics Letters (EPL)
Conditional phase-shift enhancement through dynamical Rydberg blockade
Jin‐Hui Wu, M. Artoni, F. S. Cataliotti, Giuseppe Carlo La Rocca
Abstract
Large cross-phase shifts per photon can be attained through an all-optical polarization control of dipole blockade in Rydberg atoms. A pair of weak circularly polarized signal and control light pulses experience a giant nonlinear cross-interaction through the conditional excitation of a Rydberg state. Conditional cross-phase modulations on the order of π -radians may be attained under specific symmetric EIT quasi-resonant driving conditions at large degrees of transparency. We also suggest the possibility of extending our scheme to work at very low intensities and within a few-blockade-radii regions.