Rydberg Atoms Research Articles

Nonlinear Rydberg exciton-polaritons in Cu2O microcavities

Rydberg excitons (analogues of Rydberg atoms in condensed matter systems) are highly excited bound electron-hole states with large Bohr radii. The interaction between them as well as exciton coupling to light may lead to strong optical nonlinearity, with applications in sensing and quantum information processing. Here, we achieve strong effective photon–photon interactions (Kerr-like optical nonlinearity) via the Rydberg blockade phenomenon and the hybridisation of excitons and photons forming polaritons in a Cu2O-filled microresonator. Under pulsed resonant excitation polariton resonance frequencies are renormalised due to the reduction of the photon-exciton coupling with increasing exciton density. Theoretical analysis shows that the Rydberg blockade plays a major role in the experimentally observed scaling of the polariton nonlinearity coefficient as ∝ n4.4±1.8 for principal quantum numbers up to n = 7. Such high principal quantum numbers studied in a polariton system for the first time are essential for realisation of high Rydberg optical nonlinearities, which paves the way towards quantum optical applications and fundamental studies of strongly correlated photonic (polaritonic) states in a solid state system.

Rydberg-atom acceleration by circular Airy laser pulses.

Circular Airy pulsed beams are introduced to significantly optimize the acceleration of neutral Rydberg atoms. Compared with the conventional pulsed Gaussian beams used in the previous report, the circular Airy structure abruptly self-focuses and subsequently propagates with weak diffraction, resulting in a much higher accelerating efficiency for both radial and longitudinal velocities, as well as a longer accelerating range along the propagation axis. The parameter dependencies of the beams on the acceleration are also analyzed.

Probing Polaron Clouds by Rydberg Atom Spectroscopy.

In recent years, Rydberg excitations in atomic quantum gases have become a successful platform to explore quantum impurity problems. A single impurity immersed in a Fermi gas leads to the formation of a polaron, a quasiparticle consisting of the impurity being dressed by the surrounding medium. With a radius of about the Fermi wavelength, the density profile of a polaron cannot be explored using insitu optical imaging techniques. In this Letter, we propose a new experimental measurement technique that enables the insitu imaging of the polaron cloud in ultracold quantum gases. The impurity atom induces the formation of a polaron cloud and is then excited to a Rydberg state. Because of the mesoscopic interaction range of Rydberg excitations, which can be tuned by the principal numbers of the Rydberg state, atoms extracted from the polaron cloud form dimers with the impurity. By performing first principle calculations of the absorption spectrum based on a functional determinant approach, we show how the occupation of the dimer state can be directly observed in spectroscopy experiments and can be mapped onto the density profile of the gas particles, hence providing a direct, real-time, and insitu measure of the polaron cloud.

Strongly Nonlinear Interaction between Nonclassical Light and a Blockaded Rydberg Atomic Ensemble.

We investigate the interaction between nonclassical light with a tunable multiphoton component and a highly nonlinear medium based on cold Rydberg atoms. The nonclassical field emitted by a DLCZ quantum memory is stored using Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency, experiencing strong nonlinear response due to the dipole blockade. We show that the storage efficiency in the Rydberg ensemble decreases as a function of the multiphoton strength of the input field, as a result of the nonlinearity. We also show that the autocorrelation function g^{(2)}(0) of the retrieved field after storage in the Rydberg state is considerably reduced, leading to the first demonstration of single photon filtering with nonclassical input light. Finally, we develop a simple simulation that allows us to model the effect of our medium on the input state. This work is a step towards matter-mediated photon-photon interactions with nonclassical light.

Geometric quantum gates via dark paths in Rydberg atoms

Geometric quantum gates via dark paths in Rydberg atoms

Quantum computing dataset of maximum independent set problem on king lattice of over hundred Rydberg atoms

Finding the maximum independent set (MIS) of a large-size graph is a nondeterministic polynomial-time (NP)-complete problem not efficiently solvable with classical computations. Here, we present a set of quantum adiabatic computing data of Rydberg-atom experiments performed to solve the MIS problem of up to 141 atoms randomly arranged on the king lattice. A total of 582,916 events of Rydberg-atom measurements are collected for experimental MIS solutions of 733,853 different graphs. We provide the raw image data along with the entire binary determinations of the measured many-body ground states and the classified graph data, to offer bench-mark testing and advanced data-driven analyses for validation of the performance and system improvements of the Rydberg-atom approach.

Superradiance of ultracold cesium Rydberg |65D5/2〉 → |66P3/2〉

We investigate Rydberg |65D5/2〉 → |66P3/2〉 superradiance in dense ultracold cesium atoms, where the ground atoms are excited to |65D5/2〉 Rydberg states via two-photon excitation in a standard magneto-optical trap. The superradiant spectrum of |65D5/2〉 → |66P3/2〉 is obtained using the state-selective field ionization technique. We observe its dynamic evolution process by varying the delay time of ionization field t d. The results show that the evolution process of |65D5/2〉 → |66P3/2〉 is much shorter than its radiation lifetime at room temperature, which verifies the superradiance effect. The dependence of the superradiance process on Rydberg atoms number N e and principal quantum number n is investigated. The results show that the superradiance becomes faster with increasing N e, while it is suppressed for stronger van der Waals (vdW) interactions. Superradiance has potential applications in quantum technologies, and the Rydberg atom is an ideal medium for superradiance. Our system is effective for studying the strong two-body interaction between Rydberg atoms.

Sympathetic Cooling and Slowing of Molecules with Rydberg Atoms.

We propose to sympathetically slow and cool polar molecules in a cold, low-density beam using laser-cooled Rydberg atoms. The elastic collision cross sections between molecules and Rydberg atoms are large enough to efficiently thermalize the molecules even in a low-density environment. Molecules traveling at 100 m/s can be stopped in under 30 collisions with little inelastic loss. Our method does not require photon scattering from the molecules and can be generically applied to complex species for applications in precision measurement, quantum information science, and controlled chemistry.

Quantum state complexity meets many-body scars

Scar eigenstates in a many-body system refers to a small subset of non-thermal finite energy density eigenstates embedded into an otherwise thermal spectrum. This novel non-thermal behaviour has been seen in recent experiments simulating a one-dimensional PXP model with a kinetically-constrained local Hilbert space realised by a chain of Rydberg atoms. We probe these small sets of special eigenstates starting from particular initial states by computing the spread complexity associated to time evolution of the PXP hamiltonian. Since the scar subspace in this model is embedded only loosely, the scar states form a weakly broken representation of the Lie algebra. We demonstrate why a careful usage of the forward scattering approximation (FSA), instead of any other method, is required to extract the most appropriate set of Lanczos coefficients in this case as the consequence of this approximate symmetry. Only such a method leads to a well defined notion of a closed Krylov subspace and consequently, that of spread complexity. We show this using three separate initial states, namely |Z2⟩,|Z3⟩ and the vacuum state, due to the disparate classes of scar states hosted by these sectors. We also discuss systematic methods of remedying the imperfections in the FSA setup stemming from these approximate symmetries.

Measuring Nonlocal Brane Order with Error-Corrected Quantum Gas Microscopes

Exotic quantum many-body states, such as Haldane and spin liquid phases, can exhibit remarkable features like fractional excitations and non-Abelian statistics and offer new understandings of quantum entanglement in many-body quantum systems. These phases are classified by nonlocal correlators that can be directly measured in atomic analog quantum simulating platforms, such as optical lattices and Rydberg atom arrays. However, characterizing these phases in large systems is experimentally challenging because they are sensitive to local errors like atom loss, which suppress its signals exponentially. Additionally, protocols for systematically identifying and mitigating uncorrelated errors in analog quantum simulators are lacking. Here, we address these challenges by developing an error-correction method for large-scale neutral atom quantum simulators using optical lattices. Our error-correction method can distinguish correlated particle-hole pairs from uncorrelated holes in the Mott insulator. After removing the uncorrelated errors, we observe a dramatic improvement in the nonlocal parity correlator and find the perimeter scaling law. Furthermore, the error model provides a statistical estimation of fluctuations in site occupation, from which we measure the generalized brane correlator and confirm that it can be an order parameter for Mott insulators in two dimensions. Our work provides a promising avenue for investigating and characterizing exotic phases of matters in large-scale quantum simulators. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Error-robust quantum signal processing using Rydberg atoms

Rydberg atom arrays have recently emerged as one of the most promising platforms for quantum simulation and quantum information processing. However, as is the case for other experimental platforms, the longer-term success of the Rydberg atom arrays in implementing quantum algorithms depends crucially on their robustness to gate-induced errors. Here we show that, for an idealized biased-error model based on Rydberg atom dynamics, the implementation of quantum signal processing (QSP) protocols can be made error robust, in the sense that the asymptotic scaling of the gate-induced error probability is slower than that of gate complexity. Moreover, our numerical results that use experimentally accessible parameters indicate that QSP iterates made out of more than 100 gates can be implemented with constant error probability. To showcase our approach, we provide a concrete blueprint to implement QSP-based near-optimal Hamiltonian simulation on the Rydberg atom platform. The proposed protocol substantially improves both the scaling and the overhead of gate-induced errors in comparison to those protocols that implement a fourth-order product formula. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Sensitivity of radio-frequency electric field sensor based on Rydberg Stark effect

Rydberg atoms hold special attraction in electric applications due to their large transition electric dipole moments and huge polarization, which leads to a strong response of atom to electric fields. In radio-frequency (RF) fields, the Rydberg levels are AC Stark shift and splitting, which can realize the study of high-sensitivity electric field sensor of Rydberg atoms. In this work, we use the simpler Shirley’s time-independent Floquet Hamiltonian model to calculate the AC Stark energy spectrum of Cs Rydberg atoms. This model can reduce the basic Hamiltonian into such a Hamiltonian that includes only those Rydberg states that have direct dipole-allowed transitions with the target state, thereby significantly improving the speed of computation. The accuracy of the calculation is proved by fitting with the calculated frequency shift of DC Stark energy levels in the weak fields, and the polarizability of 60D<sub>5/2</sub> and 70D<sub>5/2</sub> Rydberg atomic states are obtained by fitting with the measured ion spectra of DC Stark Cs ultra-cold Rydberg atoms in magneto-optical trap. In addition, we calculate the AC Stark shift of Cs Rydberg atom <inline-formula><tex-math id="M2">\begin{document}$ \left| {60{{\text{D}}_{5/2}},{m_j} = 1/2} \right\rangle $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic specific-use="online" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="9-20240162_M2.jpg"/><graphic specific-use="print" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="9-20240162_M2.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> state in electric fields with different frequencies with <i>ε</i> = 100 mV/m. Rydberg atoms provide a structured spectrum of sensitivity to electric fields due to strong resonant interaction and off-resonant interaction with many dipole-allowed transitions to nearby Rydberg states. This kind of the frequency response structure is of significance to a broadband sensor. And we calculate the sensitivity and the scaling of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), <i>β</i>, varying with detuning from the <inline-formula><tex-math id="M3">\begin{document}$ \left| {60{{\text{D}}_{5/2}}} \right\rangle \to \left| {61{{\text{P}}_{3/2}}} \right\rangle $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic specific-use="online" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="9-20240162_M3.jpg"/><graphic specific-use="print" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="9-20240162_M3.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> transition. The value of <i>β</i> allows one to use the result for any Rydberg state sensor to determine the SNR for any <i>Ε</i> in a 1 s measurement. Therefrom, Rydberg sensor can preferentially detect many RF frequencies spreading across its carrier spectral range without modification while effectively rejecting large portions where the atom response is significantly weaker, and the signal depends primarily on the detuning of the RF field to the nearest resonance which does not convey the RF frequency directly.

Measurement of low-frequency electric field waveform by Rydberg atom-based sensor

The high polarizability of Rydberg atoms enables the multi-parameters measurement of electromagnetic fields. In this paper, we report on an atomic antenna based on Rydberg atoms in a room temperature vapor cell. The EIT is a destructive interference spectroscopy with a narrow linewidth and can be used to detect small electric fields through Autler-Townes splitting or Stark shifts. In our experiments, we employ cascade-type two-photon excitation electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) spectroscopy to measure the shift of the Rydberg energy level. We introduce a low-frequency electric field (~kHz frequency) using a built-in electrode technique in the cesium cell. The interaction between the Rydberg atom and electric field induces the Stark shifts, where the amplitude of the electric field is converted into corresponding two-photon detuning by the EIT effect. Furthermore, the amplitude of the low-frequency electric field is converted into an intensity signal of EIT probe beam. Under weak field conditions, it is an approximate linear relationship between EIT transmission signal and input electric field amplitude, enabling measurement of waveform, amplitude, and frequency. We have demonstrated optical measurements of low-frequency electric field using Rydberg atoms. By increasing the power of probe beam and coupling beam, the EIT can increase the response bandwidth from ~MHz to hundreds of MHz. This provides a scalable approach for measuring high-frequency electric fields.

Envelope effect of Rydberg States Generation in Strong Laser Pulses

Rydberg atoms are important building blocks for quantum technologies, exploited to new applications in quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensing due to their unique tunable quantum properties.Besides the widely-used few-photon resonant excitation for the specific Rydberg state, multiple Rydberg states can be populated coherently and effciently through the frustrated tunneling ionization or the Coulomb potential recapture effect in strong laser field. The Rydberg states excitation in strong field provides an opportunity to realize the ultrafast quantum control on Rydberg atom and bridge the strong field physics and quantum information technology. <br>Using the Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo method and Qprop package to solve Time-Dependent increases with the parameter of the asymmetric laser envelope. Based on the Quantitative Rescattering theory, the calculated time-dependence of recapture rate is negatively related to the laser envelope and the residual laser interaction time, which is termed as envelope effect. Combined with the carrier-wave effect, an analytic formula is proposed to calculate the Rydberg states population:$Y(t) \propto W_0(t) \frac{t-\tau+c}{f(t)} \cos (\omega t+\phi)$ This results open the door to enhance the Rydberg states generation using the laser envelope control, benefiting the future quantum technology based on the Rydberg states generated in the strong laser field.(a) Laser electric fields with the same pulse duration τ = 10T<sub>0</sub> and different asymmetric parameters α. Black solid line, red dashed line and blue dashed-dotted line are for α = -0.6, 0, 0.6 respectively. (b) The yields of Rydberg states change with the asymmetric parameter under different laser pulse duration. Black solid line, red dashed line and blue dashed-dotted line are for τ = 1010T<sub>0</sub>, 1510T<sub>0</sub>, 2010T<sub>0</sub> respectively. Schrödinger Equation, we calculate the population of Rydberg states. Our results show that the population.

Electromagnetically induced transparency spectra of cesium Rydberg atoms decorated by radio-frequency fields

<sec>The large electric dipole moment of the Rydberg atom allows for strong coupling with weak electric fields, and is widely used in electric field measurements because of its reproducibility, precision and stability. The combination of Rydberg atoms and electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) technology has been used for detecting and characterizing radio-frequency (RF) electric fields. </sec><sec>In this work, by selecting probe light (852 nm), dressed light (1470 nm), and coupled light (780 nm), the Rydberg state (49<i>P</i><sub>3/2</sub>) of Cs atom is prepared by using a three-photon excitation scheme through using all-infrared light excitation of Rydberg atoms. We experimentally observe the EIT spectra of the Rydberg states decorated by radio-frequency electric fields, which optically detects Rydberg atoms. The effect of the amplitude and frequency of the RF electric field on the spectrum is explored in light of changes in the EIT spectrum. The results show that in the region of weak electric field, only the ac Stark energy shift and spectral broadening occur. As the electric field is further enhanced, the sideband phenomenon occurs in both the primary peak and secondary peak of the EIT. In the region of strong field, the Rydberg energy level produces a series of Floquet states with higher-order terms, as well as state shifting and mixing, resulting in asymmetry in the spectra of the EIT sideband peaks. The effect of frequency on the shielding effect of the Cs vapor cell is further discussed based on the shift of the main peak of the EIT.</sec><sec>The demodulation of the electric field in a range of 50 Hz–1 kHz with a fidelity of 95% is achieved by modulating the low-frequency electric field to the RF electric field. The results can provide valuable references for spectral detection and traceable measurements of low-frequency electric fields.</sec>

Integrating Optical Nanofibres with Cold Rubidium Ground-State and Rydberg Atoms

In recent years, optical nanofibres have become a promising platform for trapping, manipulating and controlling atomic systems. In this work, I will highlight our recent work on the demonstration of multiphoton processes using optical nanofibres embedded in a Rb MOT for the generation of entangled photons and the excitation of Rydberg atoms for all-fibred quantum networks.

RF spectra induced by different polarized microwave

Electric field measurement techniques based on Rydberg atoms have proven to have unique advantages in high sensitivity and have drawn wide attention in microwave electric field metrology and communication. The Rydberg states employed for microwave sensing are usually excited by two- or three-step laser irradiation. It leads to the Rydberg atoms being populated by some specific magnetic quantum number states determined by the laser polarization configurations, whose further coupling to another Rydberg state is also constrained by the microwave polarization. Based on a three-laser optical excitation, we demonstrate this effect on the microwave spectra of the 85Rb transitions 41F7/2 → 42D5/2 and 41F7/2 → 41G7/2 at various combining polarization configurations. It shows a strong polarization dependence on the microwave spectrum and then affects the sensitivity of Rydberg atom-based microwave field sensing. Advisable polarization schemes for higher sensitivity are suggested by the two types of transitions.

Tune-out wavelengths of Rydberg atoms

The atomic polarizability represents the response characteristics of atoms to externally applied electro-magnetic fields. The wavelength (or frequency) at which the dynamic polarizability of an atom is equal to zero is referred to as the tune-out wavelength (or frequency). Spectroscopy technology based on the tune-out effect has potential applications in quantum precision measurement, quantum computation and quantum communication. Related research topics include the measurement of fundamental physical constants and strong interactions. The tune-out wavelengths of atoms in low-lying states primarily fall within the optical band, where the theoretical calculations and experimental measurements have significant progress. However, for Rydberg atoms in highly excited states, theoretical calculations are challenging due to their high density of atomic states. The difficulty of experimental measurement arises from small splitting of adjacent atomic energy levels. In this paper, we demonstrate the tune-out wavelengths measurement for Rydberg atoms in a cesium vapor cell at room temperature. We utilize a two-photon cascade excitation to prepare Rydberg states and employ amplitude-modulation electromagnetically-induced transparency (AM-EIT) spectroscopy to measure the tune-out wavelength. By continuously scanning the microwave frequencies, we obtain AM-EIT signals of Rydberg atoms. At near-resonant microwave transition wavelengths, strong AM-EIT signals are observed due to microwave-atom coupling. Conversely, at tune-out wavelengths, the dynamically polarization-induced destructive interference in neighboring energy states occurs which leads to the weak AM-EIT signals. The AM-EIT provides a spectral resolution of about 10 MHz. We have developed a simplified three-level model to calculate the tune-out wavelength. The results of our theoretical calculations are consistent with the experimental findings within a range of ±90 MHz.

Effects of disorder on electron heating in ultracold plasmas

Starting from the beginning of their research in the early 2000s, the ultracold plasmas were considered as a promising tool to achieve considerable values of the Coulomb coupling parameter for electrons. Unfortunately, this was found to be precluded by a sharp spontaneous increase in temperature, which was often attributed to the so-called disorder-induced heating. It is the aim of the present paper to quantify the effect of spontaneous heating as a function of the initial ionic disorder and, thereby, to estimate the efficiency of its mitigation, e.g., by the Rydberg blockade. As a result of the performed simulations, we found that the dynamics of electrons exhibited a well-expressed transition from the case of the quasi-regular arrangement of ions to the disordered one; the magnitude of the effect being about 30%. Thereby, we can conclude that the two-step formation of ultracold plasmas—involving the intermediate stage of the blockaded Rydberg gas—can really serve as a tool to increase the degree of Coulomb coupling, but the efficiency of this method is moderate.

Quantum control by effective counterdiabatic driving

We review a scheme for the systematic design of quantum control protocols based on shortcuts to adiabaticity in few-level quantum systems. The adiabatic dynamics is accelerated by introducing high-frequency modulations in the control Hamiltonian, which mimic a time-dependent counterdiabatic correction. We present a number of applications for the high-fidelity realization of quantum state transfers and quantum gates based on effective counterdiabatic driving, in platforms ranging from superconducting circuits to Rydberg atoms.