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Photonics

Two-Photon Laser Excitation of Rb Rydberg Atoms in the Magneto-Optical Trap and Vapor Cell

Denis B. Tretyakov, Vasily M. Entin, Ilya I. Beterov, Elena A. Yakshina, Yu. Ya. Pechersky, Гольдорт Вениамин Гершевич, I. I. Ryabtsev

Published Oct 27, 2023• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We present our experimental results of two-photon laser excitation 5S1/2→5P3/2→nS1/2 of Rb atoms to Rydberg nS1/2 states with a homemade 480 nm laser in the second excitation step. In an experiment with cold Rb atoms, we excited the 42S1/2 state and detected Rydberg atoms with a selective-field-ionization (SFI) detector that provides single-atom resolution. The resonance line shapes well agreed with numerical simulations in a three-level theoretical model. We also studied the multiatom spectra of Rydberg excitation of mesoscopic atom ensembles which are of interest to quantum information processing. In the experiment with hot Rb atoms, we first excited the 30S1/2 state and observed a narrow Rydberg EIT resonance. Its line shape also agreed well with theory. Then, we performed a similar experiment with the higher 41S1/2 state and observed the Autler–Townes splitting of the EIT resonance in the presence of a microwave field, which was in resonance with the microwave transition 41S→41P3/2. This allowed us to measure the average strength of the microwave field and, thus, demonstrate the operation of a Rydberg microwave sensor. We may conclude that the developed homemade laser at 480 nm substantially extends our capabilities for further experiments on quantum information and quantum sensing with Rydberg atoms.

DOI
10.3390/photonics10111201

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We present our experimental results of two-photon laser excitation 5S1/2→5P3/2→nS1/2 of Rb atoms to Rydberg nS1/2 states with a homemade 480 nm laser in the second excitation step. In an experiment with cold Rb atoms, we excited the 42S1/2 state and detected Rydberg atoms with a selective-field-ionization (SFI) detector that provides single-atom resolution. The resonance line shapes well agreed with numerical simulations in a three-level theoretical model. We also studied the multiatom spectra of Rydberg excitation of mesoscopic atom ensembles which are of interest to quantum information processing. In the experiment with hot Rb atoms, we first excited the 30S1/2 state and observed a narrow Rydberg EIT resonance. Its line shape also agreed well with theory. Then, we performed a similar experiment with the higher 41S1/2 state and observed the Autler–Townes splitting of the EIT resonance in the presence of a microwave field, which was in resonance with the microwave transition 41S→41P3/2. This allowed us to measure the average strength of the microwave field and, thus, demonstrate the operation of a Rydberg microwave sensor. We may conclude that the developed homemade laser at 480 nm substantially extends our capabilities for further experiments on quantum information and quantum sensing with Rydberg atoms.
In this work, we present an nS1/2→(n + 1)S1/2 two-photon excitation EIT-AT spectrum of Rydberg atom in the vapor cell. A ground state (6S1/2), a first excited state (6P3/2) and Rydberg state (69S1/2) of cesium atoms constitute a three-level system. A weak probe laser locking to the transition of 6S1/2 (F = 4)→6P3/2 (F′ = 5) couples the ground-state transition, and the strong coupling laser drives the Rydberg transition of 6P3/2→69S1/2 to yield electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect, which realizes the optical detection of Rydberg atoms. Two Rydberg 69S1/2 and 70S1/2 levels are coupled with the microwave field at a frequency of fMW = 11.735 GHz, forming a microwave two-photon spectrum. To observe the influence of microwave electric field power on two-photon spectrum, we investigate the microwave coupled Rydberg EIT-AT spectra at different microwave fields. The measurements show that the EIT-AT splitting interval is proportional to the square of the microwave electric field at strong microwave field, and indicvates a nonlinear dependence at weak microwave electric field. The theoretical calculation accords with the experimental measurement. The work here is of significance in precisely measuring the microwave electric field.
Abstract The temporal dynamics of three-photon 5S1/2 → 5P3/2 → 6S1/2 → 39P3/2 laser excitation of mesoscopic ensembles of cold Rb atoms to Rydberg states in a magneto-optical trap is studied using cw single-frequency lasers at each stage. The ensembles comprise N = 1 – 5 atoms and are detected by the method of selective field ionisation with postselection with respect to the number of atoms. The dependence of the excitation probability on the duration of the exciting laser pulses and the number of detected Rydberg atoms is investigated. At short interaction times, a linear increase in probabilities is observed, and at large times, the probabilities reach saturation, while each number of atoms has its own characteristic features. The experimental dependences are compared with the results of numerical calculations in the framework of a four-level model, and their good agreement is obtained. The conditions necessary for observing Rabi population oscillations are determined. The obtained results are important for the application of Rydberg atoms in quantum information.
The spectra of three-photon laser excitation (according to the 5 S 1/2 → 5 P 3/2 → 6 S 1/2 → 37 P 3/2 scheme) of mesoscopic ensembles of cold Rb Rydberg atoms in a magneto-optical trap, using cw single-frequency lasers in each stage, have been investigated. The ensembles consisted of 1 to 5 atoms, and their presence was recorded by the selective field ionisation method with postselection according to the number of atoms. The dependence of the spectral shape on the excitation laser pulse duration has been studied. For 2-μs pulses, the minimum spectral width was found to be 1.3 MHz; it was determined by the laser linewidth and the spectral width of laser pulse. For pulses shorter than 0.5 μs, additional spectral broadening and occurrence of Rabi oscillations in the wings of three-photon resonances have been observed, a fact indicative of implementation of coherent three-photon laser excitation of Rydberg atoms. An analysis of the spectra within the four-level theoretical model based on optical Bloch equations showed good agreement between the experimental and theoretical results. The dependence of the shape of three-photon excitation spectrum on the number of recorded atoms was also studied. An increase in the average number of atoms leads to the occurrence of a dip in the single-atom excitation spectra; this dip is due to the specificity of the excitation and detection statistics of Rydberg atoms. The results obtained are important for applications of Rydberg atoms in quantum informatics.
We demonstrate the single-photon Rydberg excitation of cesium atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). We excite atoms directly from 6S1/2ground state to nP3/2(n = 70-100) Rydberg state with a narrow-linewidth 319-nm ultra-violet laser. The detection of Rydberg states is performed by monitoring the reduction of fluorescence signal of the MOT as partial population on 6S1/2(F = 4) ground state are transferred to Rydberg state. We clearly observe Autler-Townes doublet in the trap-loss spectra due to the cooling lights. Utilizing the large electric polarizibility of Rydberg atoms, we observe Stark splitting in the Autler-Townes doublet induced by background DC electric fields. We investigate the dependence of Stark shift on electric fields by theoretical analysis, and then infer the DC electric field from the measured Stark splitting. We find that there is a 44.8(4) mV/cm DC electric field in the vicinity of the cold ensemble. It indicates that high-lying Rydberg atoms can be used as sensors for DC electric fields.
We report the Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) spectra of the 87 Rb 5 S 1/2 → 5 P 3/2 → 5 D 5/2 → 38 F 7/2 transition in a vapor cell with a DC magnetic field and demonstrate its use for tunable, resonant L-band microwave electric field detection via the Autler-Townes (AT) splitting. Compared to conventional two-photon Rydberg excitation, three-photon EIT exhibits a markedly richer and more intricate spectral structure resulting from extra transition pathways under a DC magnetic field. Under copropagating linearly-polarized optical fields and a static magnetic field, we resolve as many as eight distinct EIT peaks and extract their linear Zeeman-shift coefficients. The measured Zeeman-shifts are all in agreement with the predictions of a simple analytical equation. More interestingly, we demonstrate a single-Zeeman-sublevel Rydberg excitation using three-photon EIT with circular light fields and a quantization axis. We subsequently exploit single-Zeeman-sublevel Rydberg-EIT at the low principal quantum number n = 38 to perform a tunable, resonant EIT–AT measurement of 1.5 GHz (L-band) microwave electric fields. The observed characteristics confirm that L-band microwave measurement via three-photon excited low- n F Rydberg states is advantageous by avoiding the autoionization and high laser power demands of two-photon excited high- n Rydberg states.
We present a two-photon microwave spectra of cesium Rydberg atoms in the room-temperature vapor cell. The three-level atom including a ground state 6S1/2 (F = 4), an excited state 6P3/2 (F′ = 5) and Rydberg state consists of Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (Rydberg-EIT), that is employed to detect the microwave two-photon spectra. The microwave field with frequency ν DD = 11.42865 GHz couples the transition of Rydberg energy level |68D5/2〉 → |69D5/2〉, measured two-photon spectra display a rich of information including the microwave ac Stark shifts and two-photon Autler-Townes (AT) splitting. In the strong microwave field, the two-photon spectroscopy shows the state mixture between |68D5/2〉 and |68D3/2〉 Stark lines. The microwave two-photon spectra of the |69S1/2〉 → |70S1/2〉 transition coupled with frequency ν SS = 11.73503 GHz are also presented. The Floquet theory is employed to simulate the two-photon microwave spectra, showing the good agreement with the measurements. The work suggests the new method that may be used to investigate the multi-photon field-atom interaction and as an atom-based technique for precision field measurements.