Stuttgart 2012 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 35: Poster 2

Q 35.50: Poster

Mittwoch, 14. März 2012, 16:30–19:00, Poster.I+II

Coherent Rydberg Excitation in Thermal Vapor Cells — •Bernhard Huber, Thomas Baluktsian, Andreas Kölle, Georg Epple, Harald Kübler, Robert Löw, and Tilman Pfau — 5. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart

Highly excited Rydberg atoms are the heart of many proposals regarding the realization of quantum devices that make use of the long-range character of the Rydberg-Rydberg interaction to impose correlations between different quantum states. While various experiments in cold gases have already shown beautiful results, the basic principles are also valid for a thermal gas. We show that the coherent control of Rydberg atoms is feasible in thermal vapor.

In our case the Rydberg state is addressed by a two-photon-excitation using a bandwidth-limited pulsed laser system. With this system we can achieve very fast excitation dynamics such that the atoms can be considered frozen on the relevant timescales. We present Rabi oscillations to a Rydberg state in Rb in the GHz range showing that despite the limited coherence time in a thermal gas it is possible to do fully coherent excitation [1].

We also discuss the status of our search for Rydberg-Rydberg interaction effects on the Rabi oscillations.
[1] B. Huber, T. Baluktsian, M. Schlagmüller, A. Kölle, H. Kübler, R. Löw, and T. Pfau
GHz Rabi Flopping to Rydberg States in Hot Atomic Vapor Cells, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 243001 (2011)