Radiation trapping in a dense cold Rydberg gas

Sadler, D.P.; Bridge, E.M.; Boddy, D.; Bounds, A.D.; Keegan, N.C.; Lochead, G.; Jones, M.P.A.; Olmos, B.

Abstract

Cold atomic gases resonantly excited to Rydberg states can exhibit strong optical nonlinearity at the single-photon level. We observe that in such samples radiation trapping leads to an additional mechanism for Rydberg excitation. Conversely we demonstrate that Rydberg excitation provides an in situ probe of the spectral, statistical, temporal, and spatial properties of the trapped rescattered light. We also show that absorption can lead to an excitation saturation that mimics the Rydberg blockade effect. Collective effects due to multiple scattering may coexist with cooperative effects due to long-range interactions between the Rydberg atoms, adding a new dimension to quantum optics experiments with cold Rydberg gases.

Citation

Sadler, D., Bridge, E., Boddy, D., Bounds, A., Keegan, N., Lochead, G., …Olmos, B. (2017). Radiation trapping in a dense cold Rydberg gas. Physical Review A, 95(1), Article 013839. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.95.013839

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 16, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jan 24, 2017
• Publication Date: Jan 24, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 14, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 16, 2017
• Journal: Physical Review A
• Print ISSN: 2469-9926
• Electronic ISSN: 2469-9934
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 95
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 013839
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.95.013839
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1365506