Abstract
We experimentally demonstrate an original method to measure very accurately the density of a frozen Rydberg gas. It is based on the use of adiabatic transitions induced by the long-range dipole–dipole interaction in pairs of nearest-neighbor Rydberg atoms by sweeping an electric field with time. The efficiency of this two-body process is experimentally tunable, depends strongly on the density of the gas and can be accurately calculated. The analysis of this efficiency leads to an accurate determination of the Rydberg gas density, and to a calibration of the Rydberg detection. Our method does not require any prior knowledge or estimation of the volume occupied by the Rydberg gas, or of the efficiency of the detection.
Highlights
Standard density measurements are indirect optical methods based on the interaction between an atomic or a molecular gas with a resonant light [1]
Measurements without the swept electric field have been done to quantify the effect of black-body radiation on ns atoms, which may drive them into the np state; all data presented in Fig. 3 have been corrected for this effect
We have presented the fitted conversion function in the frame of a linear and a quadratic model, but the extension to higher order model is straightforward
Summary
Standard density measurements are indirect optical methods based on the interaction between an atomic or a molecular gas with a resonant light [1]. We illustrate it with a very accurate, direct determination of the density of a Rydberg atomic sodium gas. Does this process not depend on any short-range interaction between the atoms, but the efficiency of the transition, averaged over the Rydberg sample, depends only on the nearest-neighbor distribution. We characterize experimentally the amount of induced transitions for a number of values of the electric field sweeping rate, which leads us to a very accurate determination of the Rydberg gas density
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