Ionization of Rydberg atoms by standing-wave light fields

Anderson, Spencer; Raithel, Georg

doi:10.1038/ncomms3967

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The single photon transition circumvents scattering from any intermediate state and therefore allows for a long-time exposure. The key observable is the string of ions produced by excited atoms that are photoionized by the trap laser [11] (with ionization rate Γ ion = (45 ± 5) kHz). Specifically, we detect the initial peak ion rate as well as the temporal pair correlation function g (2) (τ ), extracted from the timeresolved ion signal (see Methods).…”

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confidence: 99%

Mesoscopic Rydberg-blockaded ensembles in the superatom regime and beyond

et al. 2015

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Controlling strongly interacting many-body systems enables the creation of tailored quantum matter, with properties transcending those based solely on single particle physics. Atomic ensembles which are optically driven to a Rydberg state provide many examples of this, such as atom-atom entanglement [1,2], many-body Rabi oscillations [3], strong photon-photon interaction [4] and spatial pair correlations [5]. In its most basic form, Rydberg quantum matter consists of an isolated ensemble of strongly interacting atoms spatially confined to the blockade volume -a so-called superatom. Here we demonstrate the controlled creation and characterization of an isolated mesoscopic superatom by means of accurate density engineering and excitation to Rydberg p-states. Its variable size allows to investigate the transition from effective two-level physics for strong confinement to many-body phenomena in extended systems. By monitoring continuous laser-induced ionization we observe a strongly anti-bunched ion emission under blockade conditions and extremely bunched ion emission under off-resonant excitation. Our experimental setup enables in vivo measurements of the superatom, yielding insight into both excitation statistics and dynamics. We anticipate straightforward applications in quantum optics and quantum information as well as future experiments on many-body physics.Rydberg superatoms combine single and many-body quantum effects in a unique way and have been proposed as fundamental building blocks for quantum simulation and quantum information [6]. Due to the phenomenon of Rydberg blockade [7], the ensemble collectively forms a system with only two levels of excitation. Provided a range of interaction larger than the sample size, the presence of one excitation shifts all other atoms out of resonance and therefore only one excitation can be created at a time. Changing the size or the driving conditions revives the underlying many-body nature and the presence of several excited atoms with pronounced correlations becomes possible. This tunability and the possibility of multiple usage within a single experimental sequence make superatoms a promising complement to single-atom-based quantum technology. It is therefore important to understand the significance of the superatom concept, the implications of its finite spatial extent and its many-body level structure. We here investigate the latter by measuring the mean Rydberg excitation as well as its time-resolved two-particle correlations in an optically excited, mesoscopic superatom for varying excitation strength and under resonant and non-resonant conditions, revealing very different excitation dynamics.The realization of superatom-based quantum systems requires the implementation of arbitrary arrangements of isolated mesoscopic atomic ensembles in a scalable way. We here prepare an individual superatom by carefully shaping the density distribution of a Bose-Einstein condensate of 87 Rb atoms. We first load the condensate into a one-dimensional optical lattice with a spacin...

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Mesoscopic Rydberg-blockaded ensembles in the superatom regime and beyond

et al. 2015

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“…The last term converts the squared matrix element, which is in atomic units, into SI units. For PI of Rydberg atoms the electric-dipole approximation (EDA) typically is valid, as shown in [23] and discussed in greater detail in Appendix B. The EDA is implemented by setting e ik•re = 1 in Eq.…”

Section: Pi Of Rydberg Atoms a Pi Cross Sections And Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photoionization of Rydberg Atoms in Optical Lattices

Cardman,

MacLennan,

Anderson

et al. 2021

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We develop a formalism for photoionization (PI) and potential energy curves (PECs) of Rydberg atoms in ponderomotive optical lattices and apply it to examples covering several regimes of the optical-lattice depth. The effect of lattice-induced PI on Rydberg-atom lifetime ranges from noticeable to highly dominant when compared with natural decay. The PI behavior is governed by the generally rapid decrease of the PI cross sections as a function of angular-momentum ( ), and by lattice-induced -mixing across the optical-lattice PECs. In GHz-deep lattices, -mixing leads to a rich PEC structure, and the significant low-PI cross sections are distributed over many latticemixed Rydberg states. In lattices less than several tens-of-MHz deep, atoms on low-PECs are essentially -mixing-free and maintain large PI cross sections, while atoms on high-PECs trend towards being PI-free. Characterization of PI in GHz-deep Rydberg-atom lattices may be beneficial for optical control and quantum-state manipulation of Rydberg atoms, while data on PI in shallower lattices are potentially useful in high-precision spectroscopy and quantum-computing applications of lattice-confined Rydberg atoms.

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“…The ponderomotive optical lattice trap for Rydberg atoms was proposed by our group in 2000 [19], and has been experimentally demonstrated after ten years of work [20,21]. Other studies based on the POL can be found in references [22,23].…”

Section: Chapter I Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%