Cooperative Atom-Light Interaction in a Blockaded Rydberg Ensemble

Pritchard, J.D.; Maxwell, D.; Gauguet, A.; Weatherill, K.J.; Jones, M.P.A.; Adams, C.S.

Abstract

By coupling a probe transition to a Rydberg state using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) we map the strong dipole-dipole interactions onto an optical field. We characterize the resulting cooperative optical nonlinearity as a function of probe strength and density. We demonstrate good quantitative agreement between the experiment and an N-atom cooperative model for N=3 atoms per blockade sphere and the n=60 Rydberg state. The measured linewidth of the EIT resonance places an upper limit on the dephasing rate of the blockade spheres of <110  kHz.

Citation

Pritchard, J., Maxwell, D., Gauguet, A., Weatherill, K., Jones, M., & Adams, C. (2010). Cooperative Atom-Light Interaction in a Blockaded Rydberg Ensemble. Physical Review Letters, 105(19), Article 193603. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.105.193603

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Nov 7, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 28, 2012
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 105
• Issue: 19
• Article Number: 193603
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.105.193603
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1502868
• Publisher URL: http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v105/i19/e193603