Abstract
We show that cold Rydberg gases enable an efficient six-wave mixing process where terahertz or microwave fields are coherently converted into optical fields and vice versa. This process is made possible by the long lifetime of Rydberg states, the strong coupling of millimeter waves to Rydberg transitions and by a quantum interference effect related to electromagnetically induced transparency. Our frequency conversion scheme applies to a broad spectrum of millimeter waves due to the abundance of transitions within the Rydberg manifold, and we discuss two possible implementations based on focussed terahertz beams and millimeter wave fields confined by a waveguide, respectively. We analyse a realistic example for the interconversion of terahertz and optical fields in rubidium atoms and find that the conversion efficiency can in principle exceed 90%.
Highlights
Two-way conversion between optical fields and terahertz/microwave radiation is a highly desirable capability with applications in classical and quantum technologies, including the metrological transfer of atomic frequency standards [1], novel astronomical surveys [2], long-distance transmission of electronic data via photonic carriers [3], and signal processing for applications in radar and avionics [4]
Our frequency conversion scheme applies to a broad spectrum of millimeter waves due to the abundance of transitions within the Rydberg manifold, and we discuss two possible implementations based on focussed terahertz beams and millimeter wave fields confined by a waveguide, respectively
Conversion mechanism The conversion efficiency between mm-wave and optical fields according to equation (12) will be small for a generic matrix, but complete conversion can be achieved if the atomic ensemble realises a beam splitter interaction
Summary
Corrigendum: Two-way interconversion of millimeter-wave and optical fields in Rydberg gases
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