Towards a deterministic single-photon source by Rydberg FWM effect in a thermal microcell*

The generation and manipulation of single photons are the key ingredients for the photonic-based quantum security communication and information processing. One promising candidate to realize the on-demand single-photon source is based on the combination of four-wave-mixing (FWM) and Rydberg blockade effects in a micrometer scale thermal microcell [1]. Similar to our past studies of coherent Rydberg dynamics [2] and van-der Waals interaction [3] in a three-level system, we implement a pulsed FWM scheme to observe both coherent dynamics and effects of dephasing due to Rydberg-Rydberg interaction [4]. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of the excitation volume by use of low- and high- NA optics and spatial confinement. We discuss prospects for the generation of non-classical~light. \\[4pt] [1] M. M. M\"{u}ller et al., PRA 87, 053412 (2013)\\[0pt] [2] Huber et al., PRL 107, 243001 (2011)\\[0pt] [3] Baluktsian et al., PRL 110, 123001 (2013)\\[0pt] [4] Huber et al., PRA 90, 053806 (2014)