Bulletin of the American Physical Society
43rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Volume 57, Number 5
Monday–Friday, June 4–8, 2012; Orange County, California
Session M6: Rydberg Atom Interactions and Nonlinear Optics |
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Chair: Alex Kuzmich, Georgia Tech Room: Garden 4 |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 8:00AM - 8:12AM |
M6.00001: Dynamics of Rydberg spin waves in atomic ensembles Francesco Bariani, Y.O. Dudin, A. Kuzmich, T.A.B. Kennedy We study the excitation, interaction and retrieval of collective excitations (spin waves) of Rydberg levels in large, optically thick atomic ensembles. Rather than assuming a Rydberg blockade mechanism, multiple Rydberg level excitations are allowed to mutually interact and dephase. We describe how dipole-dipole interactions destroy the correlations between spin waves leading to isolation and manipulation of individual excitations. Optical retrieval in a phase-matched direction shows the suppression of correlation. The dephasing process is suitable for the fast creation of high quality single photons with maximum efficiency $1/e$. Individual excitations can be stored in separate weakly-interacting Rydberg levels and later entangled by applying a dedicated dephasing scheme. This mechanism is shown to have a favorable, approximately exponential, scaling. Strong dipole-dipole interactions required to speed up the protocol can be generated by mixing adjacent, opposite-parity Rydberg levels with a microwave field. This resonant coupling ($ns + n'p \rightarrow n'p + ns$) extends the $1/r^3$ interaction over the whole ensemble, while short range Van der Waals channels ($ns + ns \rightarrow np + (n-1)p$) decay as $1/r^6$. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 8:12AM - 8:24AM |
M6.00002: Dissipative Many-body Quantum Optics in Rydberg Media Alexey Gorshkov, Rejish Nath, Johannes Otterbach, Michael Fleischhauer, Mikhail Lukin, Thomas Pohl We develop the theory of light propagation under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency in systems involving strongly interacting Rydberg states. Taking into account the quantum nature of light, we compute the propagation of an arbitrary input pulse in the limit of strong Rydberg-Rydberg interactions. We also solve the case of a few-photon pulse for arbitrary Rydberg-Rydberg interaction strengths [PRL 107, 133602 (2011)]. We show that this system can be used for the generation of nonclassical states of light including single photons and trains of single photons with an avoided volume between them, for implementing photon-photon gates, as well as for studying many-body phenomena with strongly correlated photons. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 8:24AM - 8:36AM |
M6.00003: Few-photon optical nonlinearities using cold Rydberg atoms Thibault Peyronel, Ofer Firstenberg, Qiyu Liang, Vladan Vuletic Effects of the Rydberg blockade in cold atomic clouds have been intensively explored over the last few years. Optical fields can be coherently mapped onto atomic states with a Rydberg component using EIT techniques. As the dipole-dipole interaction between Rydberg atoms prevents several polaritons from propagating simultaneously within a Rydberg volume, it gives rise to strong non-linearities which are mapped back on the probe optical field. We aim at bringing the Rydberg-EIT nonlinear features into the single-photon regime in order to produce non-classical highly correlated states of light. Rubidium atoms are loaded in a far off-resonant (1064nm) optical dipole trap, where densities are typically large enough to reach high optical depths within a single blockade volume. In this regime, the outcoming photon-photon correlation function is expected to exhibit highly non-classical behavior, corresponding to trains of spatially separated single-photons. Moreover, EIT techniques together with a high-resolution imaging system allow the observation of Rydberg excitations in the quasi-1D configuration, and should pave the way to in-situ monitoring of strongly correlated many-body states such as the crystallisation of Rydberg atoms. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 8:36AM - 8:48AM |
M6.00004: Steady-state antiferromagnetic order and quasi-crystalisation of Rydberg excitations in optically driven atomic ensembles Michael Hoening, David Petrosyan, Michael Fleischhauer We study resonant optical excitations of spatially frozen atoms in 1D trapping potentials and lattices to strongly-interacting Rydberg states. In the steady-state of strong uniform driving, correlations of Rydberg excitation probabilities exhibit exponentially decaying spatial oscillations with the period approaching one collective excitation per Rydberg blockade distance (superatom). For few atoms per blockade distance, the system is well described by a rate equation model with hard sphere superatoms. For higher densities approaching a continuous limit, we find via numerical simulations that the superatoms develop soft boundaries. For the case of an additional lattice we derive an effective master equation with non-local damping. We give analytic expressions for the many-body steady state and the correlation length of the Rydberg quasi-crystal or antiferromagnetic order and discuss conditions when it can approach infinity. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 8:48AM - 9:00AM |
M6.00005: Homonuclear cesium Rydberg molecules Seth Rittenhouse, Hossein Sadeghpour Over a decade ago, a new type of molecule was predicted consisting of a highly excited Rydberg atom and a ground state atom within the Rydberg electron orbit. More recently these molecules were observed spectroscopically in s-wave dominated states- redshifted from atomic lines- in an ultra-cold gas of rubidium atoms. Later, it was shown that an energetically nearby set of nearly degenerate states admixes slightly into the electronic ground state resulting in a sizable permanent electric dipole moment. In cesium atoms, the analysis and prediction of vibrationally bound states is complicated by a near degeneracy between the $ns$ Rydberg state and the degenerate higher angular momentum states. The resulting Born-Oppenheimer (BO) potentials show that a set of bound states above the $ns$ threshold might form. In this talk, we present the predicted BO potentials for cesium Rydberg molecules and examine the metastable vibrational states. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:00AM - 9:12AM |
M6.00006: Ultra-long-range Cs Trilobite Molecules in a Crossed 1064 nm Dipole Trap Jonathan Tallant, Donald Booth, James Shaffer Ultra-long-range molecules involving Rydberg atoms have been shown to exist in several different experimental regimes. Rydberg atom-Rydberg atom molecules have been created in the presence of bond-stabilizing electric fields at relatively low densities, $\la 10^{10}$ cm$^{-3}$. In a crossed dipole trap, where the density is $\sim 3$ orders of magnitude higher, new types of Rydberg atom molecules may be created. In particular, a novel bonding mechanism arises from the low energy scattering of a Rydberg atom electron off of a ground state atom. These so-called ``trilobite'' molecules can be in low or high angular momentum states. We present experimental spectra of low and high angular momentum trilobite molecules in a Cs crossed dipole trap. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:12AM - 9:24AM |
M6.00007: Theoretical Dynamics of Heavy Rydberg States in Rb$_2$ Adam Kirrander, H.R. Sadeghpour Rydberg states, characterized by long-range Coulomb interactions, are normally associated with states consisting of an electron and a positively charged atomic or molecular ion, but can also occur as vibrational states in ionic bonds between atoms. In such heavy Rydberg states, the light electron is replaced by a much heavier negative ion. Compared to normal vibrational states these have unusual properties, including extremely large internuclear distances, large dipole moments, and an infinity of states below the ion-pair dissociation limit. Ion-pair states are difficult to observe in experiments, but recently detailed spectra of heavy Rydberg states in H$_2$ and Cl$_2$ have been reported. We collaborate with the experimental groups of E.\ E.\ Eyler and P.\ Gould (UConn) to find heavy Rydberg states in Rb$_2$. Recent theoretical results are presented, and we discuss the potential application of Rb$_2$ heavy Rydberg states in cold matter physics. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:24AM - 9:36AM |
M6.00008: Anisotropic Rydberg Interactions Donald Booth, Jonathan Tallant, Arne Schwettmann, James Shaffer Strongly-correlated systems with anisotropic interactions are a field of increasing interest in atomic physics. Unique phases of matter can form in these systems, such as supersolids and checkerboard phases. One promising system for studying these phases is an ultracold Rydberg gas. In a small applied electric field, the interactions between Rydberg atoms are anisotropic as the electric field polarizes the atoms. The anisotropy can be significant compared to the other interactions between the atoms and can be used, in principle, to dress ground state atoms in a trap. We present a theoretical calculation of the anisotropic Rydberg atom interactions of the $89D_{5/2}$, $90D_{5/2}$, and $50D_{5/2}$ states at various electric fields to investigate some aspects of the practicality of these ideas. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:36AM - 9:48AM |
M6.00009: Exciting Rydberg atom superposition states for control of resonant energy exchange Donald P. Fahey, Michael W. Noel, Thomas Carroll Pairs of ultracold highly excited atoms can exchange energy over long distances through a dipole-dipole coupling. Application of a dc electric field makes it possible to tune these energy exchange processes into resonance via the Stark effect. Our experimental system allows individual $|m_{j}|$ sublevels of Rb Rydberg states to be excited, and then tuned into a dipole-dipole resonance. We can also excite coherent superpositions of these states, which can be used to control this energy exchange. We present experiments that investigate how this energy exchange proceeds for different initial $|m_{j}|$ state preparations. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:48AM - 10:00AM |
M6.00010: Polarization Dependent Dark Resonances in Electromagnetically Induced Transparency with Rydberg Atoms Jonathon Sedlacek, Arne Schwettmann, Haoquan Fan, James Shaffer We present an experimental study of optical pumping into different hyperfine Rydberg states in a Rb cell using a 4 level EIT scheme. The lower three levels are coupled together using lasers, while microwaves couple the two upper Rydberg states together. With different laser and microwave polarizations, different hyperfine states will be coupled together resulting in polarization dependent dark resonances. The experimental results match our theoretical calculations using the complete 4 level system. This technique can also be used for quantum assisted sensing of the amplitude and polarization of the electric field that is coupling the Rydberg states together. [Preview Abstract] |
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