Electromagnetically induced transparency with Rydberg atoms across the Breit-Rabi regime

Abstract

We present experimental results on the influence of magnetic fields and laser polarization on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) using Rydberg levels of 87 Rb atoms. The measurements are performed in a room temperature vapor cell with two counter-propagating laser beams at 480 nm and 780 nm in a ladder-type energy level scheme. We measure the EIT spectrum of a range of ns 1/2 Rydberg states for n = 19 − 27, where the hyperfine structure can still be resolved. Our measurements span the range of magnetic fields from the low field linear Zeeman regime to the high field PaschenBack regimes. The observed spectra are very sensitive to small changes in magnetic fields and the polarization of the laser beams. We model our observations using optical Bloch equations that take into account the full multi-level structure of the atomic states involved and the decoupling of the electronic J and nuclear I angular momenta in the Breit-Rabi regime. The numerical model yields excellent agreement with the observations. In addition to EIT related experiments, our results are relevant for experiments involving coherent excitation to Rydberg levels in the presence of magnetic fields.

Doppler-enhanced quantum magnetometry with thermal Rydberg atoms

“…This discrepancy originates from the fact that as the coupling power is reduced the experimental signals go to zero but the steady-state susceptibilities do not (see figure 10 in appendix B). This is because the relaxation time diverges and effects such as dephasing due to laser linewidths and stochastic resetting due to atoms leaving the probe beam come into play [22]. Note, however, these do not affect the locations or widths of the peaks.…”

“…However, it is still conventional to use the counterpropagating arrangement to minimize Doppler broadening. Magnetometry using this EIT configuration have been explored in [18][19][20][21][22].…”

Light-matter interfaces with single-atom arrays and Rydberg ensembles

“…The weighted average A ns = 35.71 ± 0.18 GHz is plotted as a dashed line together with a corresponding 95% confidence region. Also shown are the results of prior measurements of A ns [58,54,55,59,60].…”

“…In this way we determine the hyperfine constant A from the measured frequency intervals for n ranging from 30 to 65. Previously, A values were measured for low values of n using direct optical spectroscopy [54,55]. In these experiments, residual Doppler broadening resulted in a spectral resolution to about 100 kHz, limiting the method to n ≤ 27.…”

Spectroscopy of Rydberg States in Erbium using Electromagnetically Induced Transparency

“…The present work reports on the first high-resolution Ry spectroscopy of erbium atoms. Using a two-photon scheme based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) [34][35][36][37], we observe the ns and nd Rydberg series with principal quantum number n ranging from 15 up to 140. Using slope minimizing fits in Lu-Fano style plots [38], we provide an improved value of the first ionization potential.…”