Interaction-enhanced transmission imaging with Rydberg atoms

Abstract

Atomic-scale imaging offers a reliable tool to directly measure the movement of microscopic particles. We present a scheme for achieving a nondestructive and ultrasensitive imaging of Rydberg atoms within an ensemble of cold probe atoms. This is made possible by the interaction-enhanced electromagnetically induced transparency at off-resonance which enables an extremely narrow absorption dip for an enhanced transmission. Through the transmission of a probe beam, we obtain the distribution of Rydberg atoms with both high spatial resolution and fast response, which ensures a more precise real-time imaging. Increased resolution compared to the prior interaction-enhanced imaging technique allows us to accurately locate the atoms by adjusting the probe detuning only. This new type of interaction-enhanced transmission imaging can be utilized to other impure systems containing strong many-body interactions, and is promising to develop super-resolution microscopy of cold atoms.