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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Controlled bistability of cold Rydberg excitation with Doppler broadening

Hui Yang, Chu-Hui Fan, Han-Xiao Zhang, Yi-Mou Liu, Jin‐Hui Wu

Published Jan 11, 2019• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We study in theory the single-photon Rydberg excitation in an ensemble of two-level cold atoms at finite low temperatures. Rydberg population plotted against laser detuning may exhibit a nonlinear bistable behavior arising from the dipole–dipole interactions manifested as a van der Waals (vdW) potential. We find that Doppler broadening can result in a remarkable reduction of the bistable region, which may disappear as the atomic temperature increases to a certain value, of the order of tens to hundreds of μ K. This special temperature, depending critically on the vdW potential, can be largely raised by partially eliminating the Doppler effect, when a double-photon excitation scheme is used to replace the single-photon excitation scheme.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/aafdd6

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Abstract We study in theory the single-photon Rydberg excitation in an ensemble of two-level cold atoms at finite low temperatures. Rydberg population plotted against laser detuning may exhibit a nonlinear bistable behavior arising from the dipole–dipole interactions manifested as a van der Waals (vdW) potential. We find that Doppler broadening can result in a remarkable reduction of the bistable region, which may disappear as the atomic temperature increases to a certain value, of the order of tens to hundreds of μ K. This special temperature, depending critically on the vdW potential, can be largely raised by partially eliminating the Doppler effect, when a double-photon excitation scheme is used to replace the single-photon excitation scheme.
The influence of van der Waals (vdW) interaction on the nonlinear optical properties of Rydberg atoms is investigated within a three-level cascade scheme established using two probe and control laser fields. It is demonstrated that vdW interaction can induce reverse saturable absorption (RSA) in the Rydberg atoms in the two-photon resonance condition, enabling controllable optical limiting behavior. Furthermore, the presence of vdW interaction facilitates a switch between saturable absorption and RSA and vice versa beyond the two-photon resonance condition, thereby enabling intrinsic optical bistability in the system.
The energy level spectrum of a many-body system containing two shared, collective Rydberg excitations is measured using cold atoms in an optical dipole trap. Two pairs of independently tunable laser pulses are employed to spectroscopically probe the spectrum in a double-resonance excitation scheme. Depending on the magnitude of an applied electric field, the Rydberg-atom interactions can vary from resonant dipole-dipole to attractive or repulsive van der Waals, leading to characteristic signatures in the measured spectra. Our results agree with theoretical estimates of the magnitude and sign of the interactions.
We present an improved version of the superatom (SA) model to examine the slow-light dynamics of a few-photons signal field in cold Rydberg atoms with van der Waals (vdW) interactions. A main feature of this version is that it promises consistent estimations on total Rydberg excitations based on dynamic equations of SAs or atoms. We consider two specific cases in which the incident signal field contains more photons with a smaller detuning or less photons with a larger detuning so as to realize the single-photon-level light storage. It is found that vdW interactions play a significant role even for the slow-light dynamics of a single-photon signal field as distributed Rydberg excitations are inevitable in the picture of dark-state polariton. Moreover, the stored (retrieved) signal field exhibits a clearly asymmetric (more symmetric) profile because its leading and trailing edges undergo different (identical) traveling journeys, and higher storage/retrieval efficiencies with well preserved profiles apply only to weaker and well detuned signal fields. These findings are crucial to understand the nontrivial interplay of single-photon-level light storage and distributed Rydberg excitations.
We study optical bistable behavior of a Rydberg electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) atomic medium in a unidirectional optical ring-cavity. Due to strong van del Waal (vdW) interactions between the atoms, both optical nonlinear dispersion and nonlinear absorption coefficients are enhanced substantially. Under the condition of two-photon on resonance, we show that probe one-photon detuning can change the phase of the third order nonlinearity coefficient, which tunes the character of the optical bistability within different ratios of dispersive and absorptive types. This enables the single-photon control over photonic devices for further manipulation of light other than switches and transistors. More interestingly, we predict appearance of a scaling phenomena for optical bistabilities with the factors of coupling Rabi frequency and atomic density. Additionally, we also discuss the influence of the cavity detuning and the mirror transmission coefficient on the optical bistable behavior. The strong bistable feature provides a good ingredient for realizing all-optical logic gate devices in optical computing.
We report on the observation of ultralong range interactions in a gas of cold rubidium Rydberg atoms. The van der Waals interaction between a pair of Rydberg atoms separated as far as 100,000 Bohr radii features two important effects: spectral broadening of the resonance lines and suppression of excitation with increasing density. The density dependence of these effects is investigated in detail for the S- and P-Rydberg states with principal quantum numbers n approximately 60 and n approximately 80 excited by narrow-band continuous-wave laser light. The density-dependent suppression of excitation can be interpreted as the onset of an interaction-induced local blockade.
Abstract Coherently manipulating Rydberg atoms in mesoscopic systems has proven challenging due to the unwanted population of nearby Rydberg levels by black-body radiation. Recently, there have been some efforts towards understanding these effects using states with a low principal quantum number that only have resonant dipole–dipole interactions. We perform experiments that exhibit black-body-induced dipole–dipole interactions for a state that also has a significant van der Waals interaction. Using an enhanced rate-equation model that captures some of the long-range properties of the dipolar interaction, we show that the initial degree of Rydberg excitation is dominated by the van der Waals interaction, while the observed linewidth at later times is dominated by the dipole–dipole interaction. We also point out some prospects for quantum simulation.