Measurements of blackbody radiation-induced transition rates between high-lying S, P and D Rydberg levels

Abstract

We report experimental measurements of the rates of blackbody radiation-induced transitions between high-lying (n > 60) S, P and D Rydberg levels of rubidium atoms in a magneto-optical trap using a hybrid field ionization and state-selective depumping technique [1,2]. Our results reveal significant deviations of the measured transition rates from theory for well-defined ranges of the principal quantum number. We assume that the most likely cause for those deviations is a modified blackbody spectrum inside the glass cell in which the magneto-optical trap is formed, and we test this assumption by installing electrodes to create an additional microwave cavity around the cell. From the results we conclude that it should be possible to use such external cavities to control and suppress the blackbody radiation-induced transitions.

Quantum Optimization of Maximum Independent Set using Rydberg Atom Arrays

“…Other contributions to decoherence in the system include finite Rydberg lifetime (150 µs theoretically for 70S 1/2 , 80 µs experimentally measured), finite atomic temperature (20 µK), and laser noise. The lower experimentally measured Rydberg lifetime may be due to Purcell enhancement of blackbody-induced decay by the glass cell [57].…”

Bright and dark Autler-Townes states in the atomic Rydberg multilevel spectroscopy

“…In the AT experiments conducted in Refs. [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23] the detection of Rydberg atoms by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) optical spectroscopy or selective electric field ionisation allows the experimentalists to probe the frequency and amplitude of the mw driving radiation. The mw field amplitude is derived from the AT modification of the Rydberg excitation.…”

“…When one transition is driven by a intense laser, the second transition spectrum is composed by a resonant doublet with the separation between the two components determined by the laser electric field. This process, well characterised in atomic/molecular and solid state spectroscopy, has received recently a new interest within a different context: the precise determination of a microwave (mw) field amplitude for calibration purposes as in [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. The mw radiation is applied to cold atoms in Rydberg states where the electric dipole moment is very large, such that even a weak mw field produces AT splitting.…”