Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 29: Ultracold Atoms: Trapping and Cooling 2 (with Q)
A 29.2: Talk
Friday, March 18, 2011, 10:45–11:00, HSZ 02
Enhanced Optical Nonlinearities with Cold Rydberg Gases — •Sevilay Sevinçli1, Cenap Ates2, and Thomas Pohl1 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany — 2School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
Owing to the high sensitivity of Rydberg atoms to external fields and to interactions among themselves, ultracold Rydberg gases provide an ideal system for nonlinear optics. Here, we present a quantum and a classical many-body approach to describe interaction effects on the propagation of classical light pulse in an Rydberg-EIT medium. The nonlinear susceptibility shows perfect match between the two methods and is shown to exhibit a universal scaling behavior.
We further propose a microvawe dressing scheme, that allows to modify the interactions between Rydberg atoms, and thereby control the optical properties of the gas. In particular, this allows to greatly enhance genuine three-body interactions, giving rise to large fifth-order nonlinearities. Finally, we present an analytical derivation of the optical susceptibility, providing an intuitive picture for these effects.