Nonlinear Optics Using Cold Rydberg Atoms

Pritchard, Jonathan D.; Weatherill, Kevin J.; Adams, Charles S.

doi:10.1142/9789814440400_0008

Cited by 80 publications

(115 citation statements)

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“…The key idea is to utilize the efficient atom-light interactions to map single photons into highly excited Rydberg levels of atoms (Saffman, Walker, and Mølmer, 2010), as illustrated in Fig. 2(d) (Pritchard, Weatherill, and Adams, 2013;Firstenberg, Adams, and Hofferberth, 2016;Murray and Pohl, 2016). Here photons in a probe beam near resonance with the jgi − jei transition can be coherently absorbed into a Rydberg state jri, through a twophoton transition mediated by a strong classical pump beam Ω.…”

Section: Conventional Strong Atom-photon Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colloquium : Quantum matter built from nanoscopic lattices of atoms and photons

et al. 2018

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This Colloquium describes a new paradigm for creating strong quantum interactions of light and matter by way of single atoms and photons in nanoscopic lattices. Beyond the possibilities for quantitative improvements for familiar phenomena in atomic physics and quantum optics, there is a growing research community that is exploring novel quantum phases and phenomena that arise from atom-photon interactions in one-and two-dimensional nanophotonic lattices. Nanophotonic structures offer the intriguing possibility to control atom-photon interactions by engineering the medium properties through which they interact. An important aspect of these new research lines is that they have become possible only by pushing the state-of-the-art capabilities in nanophotonic device fabrication and by the integration of these capabilities into the realm of ultracold atoms. This Colloquium attempts to inform a broad physics community of the emerging opportunities in this new field on both theoretical and experimental fronts. The research is inherently multidisciplinary, spanning the fields of nanophotonics, atomic physics, quantum optics, and condensed matter physics.

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Section: Conventional Strong Atom-photon Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colloquium : Quantum matter built from nanoscopic lattices of atoms and photons

et al. 2018

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“…This property of optical excitation of Rydberg atoms, known as dipole blockade [11], enables a diverse range of applications in quantum many-body physics, quantum information processing [12], non-linear optics [13] and quantum optics [14][15][16][17]. An interesting feature of Rydberg systems is that the range of the interaction can be much larger than the optical excitation wavelength, giving rise to non-local interactions [18].…”

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confidence: 99%

Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in a Dilute Rydberg Ensemble

Carr¹,

Ritter²,

Wade³

et al. 2013

Phys. Rev. Lett.

224

287

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We demonstrate a non-equilibrium phase transition in a dilute thermal atomic gas. The phase transition, between states of low and high Rydberg occupancy, is induced by resonant dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg atoms. The gas can be considered as dilute as the atoms are separated by distances much greater than the wavelength of the optical transitions used to excite them. In the frequency domain we observe a mean-field shift of the Rydberg state which results in intrinsic optical bistability above a critical Rydberg number density. In the time domain we observe critical slowing down where the recovery time to system perturbations diverges with critical exponent α = −0.53 ± 0.10. The atomic emission spectrum of the phase with high Rydberg occupancy provides evidence for a superradiant cascade.Non-equilibrium systems displaying phase transitions are found throughout nature and society, for example in ecosystems, financial markets and climate [1]. The steady state of a non-equilibrium system is a dynamical equilibrium between driving and dissipative processes. In atomic physics, one of the most studied non-equilibrium phase transitions is optical bistability where the driving is provided by a resonant laser field and the dissipation is inherent in the atom-light interaction. In most examples of optical bistability feedback is provided by an optical cavity, as in the pioneering work of Gibbs [2,3]. However, bistability can also arise in systems where many dipoles are located within a volume which is much smaller than the optical wavelength; in this case the feedback is due to resonant dipole-dipole interactions [4,5]. This latter case is known as intrinsic optical bistability [6] and has, so far, only been observed in an up-conversion process between densely packed Yb 3+ ions in a solid-state crystal host cooled to cryogenic temperatures [7]. Intrinsic optical bistability generally cannot be observed for simple two-level systems such as atomic gases, because the resonance broadening, which is larger than the line shift [8], suppresses the bistable response [9,10].A solution to this problem is provided by highlyexcited Rydberg states, where the dipole-dipole induced level shifts between neighbouring states can be much larger than the excitation linewidth. This property of optical excitation of Rydberg atoms, known as dipole blockade [11], enables a diverse range of applications in quantum many-body physics, quantum information processing [12], non-linear optics [13] and quantum optics [14][15][16][17]. An interesting feature of Rydberg systems is that the range of the interaction can be much larger than the optical excitation wavelength, giving rise to non-local interactions [18]. This also creates the possibility of observing intrinsic optical bistability, and hence non-equilibrium phase transitions [19] over macroscopic, optically-resolvable length scales.In this letter, we demonstrate a non-equilibrium phase transition in a thermal Rydberg ensemble. In contrast to previous experiments, we directly observe...

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“…At the same time, the continuing development of new laser sources capable of spanning almost the complete wavelength range (from ultraviolet to infrared), have made it possible to achieve quantum control over the singleatom electronic properties of many atoms, including their highly excited Rydberg states. Laser control of Rydberg states provides a novel platform for quantum science and technology, including: probing surface fields [9][10][11][12], sensing using thermal vapours [13][14][15], quantum enhanced metrology [16,17], quantum information processing [18], extreme nonlinear via electromagnetically induced transparency [19,20] and driven-dissipative systems [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

Section: A Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Versatile, high-power 460 nm laser system for Rydberg excitation of ultracold potassium

et al. 2017

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We present a versatile laser system which provides more than 1.5 W of narrowband light, tunable in the range from 455-463 nm. It consists of a commercial Titanium-Sapphire laser which is frequency doubled using resonant cavity second harmonic generation and stabilized to an external reference cavity. We demonstrate a wide wavelength tuning range combined with a narrow linewidth and low intensity noise. This laser system is ideally suited for atomic physics experiments such as two-photon excitation of Rydberg states of potassium atoms with principal quantum numbers n > 18. To demonstrate this we perform two-photon spectroscopy on ultracold potassium gases in which we observe an electromagnetically induced transparency resonance corresponding to the 35s 1/2 state and verify the long-term stability of the laser system. Additionally, by performing spectroscopy in a magneto-optical trap we observe strong loss features corresponding to the excitation of s, p, d and higher-l states accessible due to a small electric field. A. IntroductionThe coupling of atomic systems with laser fields enables the extremely precise creation and study of model quantum systems, such as atom-light interactions [1], cavity quantum electrodynamics [2,3], optical atomic clocks [4,5], strongly correlated matter [6,7], and quantum simulators [8]. Success in these areas is largely attributed to the development of techniques such as laser cooling and trapping which have enabled an amazing level of control over essentially all ground state properties of ultracold atoms, including their atomic motion, spatial geometry, coherence and interaction properties. At the same time, the continuing development of new laser sources capable of spanning almost the complete wavelength range (from ultraviolet to infrared), have made it possible to achieve quantum control over the singleatom electronic properties of many atoms, including their highly excited Rydberg states. Laser control of Rydberg states provides a novel platform for quantum science and technology, including: probing surface fields [9-12], sensing using thermal vapours [13][14][15] One outstanding application of Rydberg atoms is to exploit strong light-matter interactions to realize new types of quantum fluids enhanced by long-range interactions (Rydberg dressing) [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. The challenge lies in reaching a regime of strong Rydberg atom-light coupling while at the same time minimizing decoherence. Most cold atom experiments working with highly excited Rydberg states are realized using alkali atoms, in which the Rydberg state is accessed via a two-photon transition involving two laser fields (commonly in the infrared and blue wavelength ranges). In this case the relevant figure of merit for Rydberg dressing scales proportionally to the atom-light Figure 1. Schematic overview of the laser system and potassium level scheme used for two-photon Rydberg excitation. (a) The laser system consists of a Titanium-Sapphire laser and resonant-cavity frequency doubling (SHG). To imp...

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Nonlinear Optics Using Cold Rydberg Atoms

Cited by 80 publications

References 124 publications

Colloquium : Quantum matter built from nanoscopic lattices of atoms and photons

Colloquium : Quantum matter built from nanoscopic lattices of atoms and photons

Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in a Dilute Rydberg Ensemble

Versatile, high-power 460 nm laser system for Rydberg excitation of ultracold potassium

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