Differential Gain and Bistability Using a Sodium-Filled Fabry-Perot Interferometer

Gibbs, H. M.; McCall, S. L.; Venkatesan, T.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.36.1135

Cited by 882 publications

(298 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In contrast to previous experiments, we directly observe optical bistability in the transmission of the probe light without the requirement for cryogenics [7] or cavity feedback [2]. We distinguish between the phases of low and high Rydberg occupancy using fluorescence spectroscopy and confirm the first-order phase transition through the observation of critical slowing down in the temporal response of the ensemble.…”

mentioning

confidence: 73%

Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in a Dilute Rydberg Ensemble

Carr¹,

Ritter²,

Wade³

et al. 2013

Phys. Rev. Lett.

231

287

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We demonstrate a non-equilibrium phase transition in a dilute thermal atomic gas. The phase transition, between states of low and high Rydberg occupancy, is induced by resonant dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg atoms. The gas can be considered as dilute as the atoms are separated by distances much greater than the wavelength of the optical transitions used to excite them. In the frequency domain we observe a mean-field shift of the Rydberg state which results in intrinsic optical bistability above a critical Rydberg number density. In the time domain we observe critical slowing down where the recovery time to system perturbations diverges with critical exponent α = −0.53 ± 0.10. The atomic emission spectrum of the phase with high Rydberg occupancy provides evidence for a superradiant cascade.Non-equilibrium systems displaying phase transitions are found throughout nature and society, for example in ecosystems, financial markets and climate [1]. The steady state of a non-equilibrium system is a dynamical equilibrium between driving and dissipative processes. In atomic physics, one of the most studied non-equilibrium phase transitions is optical bistability where the driving is provided by a resonant laser field and the dissipation is inherent in the atom-light interaction. In most examples of optical bistability feedback is provided by an optical cavity, as in the pioneering work of Gibbs [2,3]. However, bistability can also arise in systems where many dipoles are located within a volume which is much smaller than the optical wavelength; in this case the feedback is due to resonant dipole-dipole interactions [4,5]. This latter case is known as intrinsic optical bistability [6] and has, so far, only been observed in an up-conversion process between densely packed Yb 3+ ions in a solid-state crystal host cooled to cryogenic temperatures [7]. Intrinsic optical bistability generally cannot be observed for simple two-level systems such as atomic gases, because the resonance broadening, which is larger than the line shift [8], suppresses the bistable response [9,10].A solution to this problem is provided by highlyexcited Rydberg states, where the dipole-dipole induced level shifts between neighbouring states can be much larger than the excitation linewidth. This property of optical excitation of Rydberg atoms, known as dipole blockade [11], enables a diverse range of applications in quantum many-body physics, quantum information processing [12], non-linear optics [13] and quantum optics [14][15][16][17]. An interesting feature of Rydberg systems is that the range of the interaction can be much larger than the optical excitation wavelength, giving rise to non-local interactions [18]. This also creates the possibility of observing intrinsic optical bistability, and hence non-equilibrium phase transitions [19] over macroscopic, optically-resolvable length scales.In this letter, we demonstrate a non-equilibrium phase transition in a thermal Rydberg ensemble. In contrast to previous experiments, we directly observe...

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mentioning

confidence: 73%

Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in a Dilute Rydberg Ensemble

Carr¹,

Ritter²,

Wade³

et al. 2013

Phys. Rev. Lett.

231

287

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“…This kind of device presents transversally uniform steady states and bistability [13]. If the amplitude of the cavity field exceeds a certain threshold the uniform steady state becomes unstable and a spatial structure might form [14,15].…”

Section: Instituto Mediterraneo De Estudios Avanzados Imedea (Csic-umentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Equation (1) has homogeneous steady-state solutions A 0 given by A 0 ͓1 1 ih͑D 2 jA 0 j 2 ͔͒ E 0 and for D . p 3 bistability occurs [13]. On writing A A 0 ͑1 1 s͒ the eigenvalues of the linear evolution matrix for a weak perturbation s in the Fourier space (at wave number q) are, for h 1 [20],…”

Section: Instituto Mediterraneo De Estudios Avanzados Imedea (Csic-umentioning

confidence: 99%

Noise-Sustained Convective Structures in Nonlinear Optics

et al. 1997

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Evidence of noise-sustained patterns in nonlinear optical systems is given. They are found in passive optical cavities, filled by Kerr type nonlinear media, when the angle of incidence of the pump beam is not zero, in a regime of convective instability. These patterns arise as a macroscopic manifestation of dynamically amplified noise, with amplification factors of up to 10 5 . We characterize the difference between noise-sustained and deterministic patterns in terms of statistical properties of the field spectral intensity. [S0031-9007(97) PACS numbers: 42.65. Sf, Processes in which intrinsic microscopic noise of a system is amplified so that it manifests macroscopically provide a way to probe and characterize noise. Three important examples are the noise-triggered decay of an unstable state, the critical fluctuations close to an instability (which give rise to noisy precursors [1] of the state beyond the instability) and convectively unstable states in which fluctuations are dynamically amplified while convected away through the boundaries of the system [2]. In this paper we address this third situation in the context of nonlinear optics. We show the existence of noisesustained patterns which appear as a spatially structured macroscopic manifestation of quantum noise.The other two examples of noise amplification have been previously addressed in optical systems. The switch-on of a laser is an example of decay of an unstable state in which laser radiation is built up from quantum noise. In fact, the idea of a "statistical microscope" was put forward to use this process, with amplification factors of 10 8 , as a sensitive test of quantum fluctuations [3]. However, this gives no information about spatial correlations, a topic which has been considered recently through looking at amplified critical fluctuations in transverse pattern formation in nonlinear passive cavities [4][5][6]. This pattern formation problem has been the object of an intense investigation [7,8], partly because of the foreseen applications in all-optical processing and storage of information [9] and the possibility of studying the interface between classical and macroscopic quantum patterns [10]. The quantum noise reduction associated with a pattern forming instability and a Heisenbergtype relation between near-and far

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“…Since the model has an overall translational symmetry in the transverse plane, equation (9) admits a transversely homogeneous stationary solution E 0s , which obeys the well-known cubic steady-state equation [14] …”

Section: The Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial correlations in hexagons generated via a Kerr nonlinearity

Gatti

Mancini

2001

Phys. Rev. A

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We consider the hexagonal pattern forming in the cross-section of an optical beam produced by a Kerr cavity, and we study the quantum correlations characterizing this structure. By using arguments related to the symmetry broken by the pattern formation, we identify a complete scenario of six-mode entanglement. Five independent phase quadratures combinations, connecting the hexagonal modes, are shown to exhibit sub-shot-noise fluctuations. By means of a non-linear quantum calculation technique, quantum correlations among the mode photon numbers are demonstrated and calculated. 42.50.Lc, 42.50.Ne, 42.65.Jx

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Differential Gain and Bistability Using a Sodium-Filled Fabry-Perot Interferometer

Cited by 882 publications

References 15 publications

Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in a Dilute Rydberg Ensemble

Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in a Dilute Rydberg Ensemble

Noise-Sustained Convective Structures in Nonlinear Optics

Spatial correlations in hexagons generated via a Kerr nonlinearity

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