Ionization of Rydberg atoms by blackbody radiation

Бетеров, И. И.; Tretyakov, D. B.; Ryabtsev, I. I.; Энтин, В. М.; Экерс, А.; Безуглов, Н. Н.

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/11/1/013052

Cited by 61 publications

(92 citation statements)

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“…Photoionization due to the 474 nm light was also discarded because the signal was not observed to increase if a third strong non-resonant 480 nm laser is added. Also, ionization rates by blackbody radiation are expected to be very small [18]. Collision with electrons should also play a minor role in ionization, as judged from experimental ionization cross sections [19], which lead to a upper limit for ionization in our conditions of about 5 kHz.…”

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confidence: 83%

Electrical Readout for Coherent Phenomena Involving Rydberg Atoms in Thermal Vapor Cells

et al. 2013

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We present a very sensitive and scalable method to measure the population of highly excited Rydberg states in a thermal vapor cell of rubidium atoms. We detect the Rydberg ionization current in a 5 mm electrically contacted cell. The measured current is found to be in excellent agreement with a theory for the Rydberg population based on a master equation for the three level problem including an ionization channel and the full Doppler distributions at the corresponding temperatures. The signal-to-noise ratio of the current detection is substantially better than purely optical techniques.PACS numbers: 32.80. Rm, 03.67.Lx, 42.50.Gy Coherent phenomena involving strongly interacting Rydberg atoms have recently led to the demonstration of first quantum devices like quantum logic gates [1][2][3] and single photon sources [4] based on ultracold atoms. All these experiments require precise control over the highly excited states populations, which can be probed directly by field ionization [5,6] or by fluorescence techniques involving Rydberg shielding [7]. Since the strong vdW interaction has recently also been observed in vapor cells [8], scalable quantum devices based on the Rydberg blockade in above room temperature ensembles seem to be also within reach [9]. However, ion detectors as electron multipliers or multi-channel plates cannot be used in dense thermal vapors. For this reason, in thermal cells, most studies today use an indirect measurement of the excited state population by analyzing light fields leaving the atomic ensemble. Nevertheless, it is desirable to study not only the back-action of the vapor on the light, typically via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) [10], but also to measure directly the number of excited Rydberg states. One method, developed almost a century ago [11,12], makes use of thermionic diodes [13][14][15]. There, one of the electrodes is heated to emit electrons, which produce space charge limited gain for the amplification of ionized Rydberg atoms. The need of long ion trapping times requires large geometries for the space charge region, and an additional shielded excitation region to minimize the effect of disturbing electric fields during excitation of the highly polarizable Rydberg atoms. Despite its high sensitivity, this drawback sets a practical limitation for further applications where size and scalability play a role.Here we demonstrate that, in a symmetric configuration of atomic vapor between two transparent field plates, sizable currents in the nA regime reflect directly the Rydberg population and can be used as a probe with very good signal-to-noise ratio. This opens unique possibilities to probe very efficiently small spectroscopic features involving Rydberg states in thermal vapor but also might be used to stabilize lasers. By extending this concept to an array of pixel-wise arranged electrodes, high resolution spatial information on the Rydberg population can be obtained.The experiments were performed with the setup schematically shown in Fig. 1. The Rb va...

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confidence: 83%

Electrical Readout for Coherent Phenomena Involving Rydberg Atoms in Thermal Vapor Cells

et al. 2013

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“…In Table 1 we present results of the ionization rate calculation for the Rydberg sodium atom in the states (17,18D, 18P) at temperatures of 300 K and 500 K: Th5 -our (relativistic MP theory) data, E1 -experimental data by Kleppner etal and Burkhardt etal [4] MP) by Glukhov-Ovsyannikova [9], Th2-theory of Lehman [8], Th3-quasiclassical model by Dyachkov-Pankratov [10] and Th4-theory by Beterov et al [1]. Overall, there is physically reasonable agreement between the theoretical and experimental data.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Relatively new topic of the modern theory is connected with consistent treating the Rydberg atoms in a field of the Blackbody radiation (BBR). It should be noted that the BBR is one of the essential factors affecting the Rydberg states in atoms [1]. The account for the ac Stark shift, fast redistribution of the levels' population and photoionization provided by the environmental BBR became of a great importance for successfully handling atoms in their Rydberg states.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We mention a simple approximation for the rate of thermal ionization of Rydberg atoms, based on the results of our systematic calculations in the Simons-Fues MP [1]. In fact, using the MP approach is very close to the quantum defect method and other semi-empirical methods, which were also widely used in the past few years for calculating atom-field interaction amplitudes in the lowest orders of the perturbation theory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact this is a beginning of a new epoch in the atomic physics with external electromagnetic field. It has stimulated a great number of papers on the ac and dc Stark effect [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Conversely, the experiments with Rydberg atoms had very soon resulted in the discovery of an important ionization mechanism, provided by unique features of the Rydberg atoms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms in a Black-body radiation field: Relativistic theory of excitation and ionization

Свинаренко

Khetselius

Buyadzhi

et al. 2014

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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IntroductionA great progress in experimental laser physics and appearance of the so called tunable lasers allows one to access the highly excited Rydberg states of atoms. In fact this is a beginning of a new epoch in the atomic physics with external electromagnetic field. It has stimulated a great number of papers on the ac and dc Stark effect [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Conversely, the experiments with Rydberg atoms had very soon resulted in the discovery of an important ionization mechanism, provided by unique features of the Rydberg atoms. Relatively new topic of the modern theory is connected with consistent treating the Rydberg atoms in a field of the Blackbody radiation (BBR). It should be noted that the BBR is one of the essential factors affecting the Rydberg states in atoms [1]. The account for the ac Stark shift, fast redistribution of the levels' population and photoionization provided by the environmental BBR became of a great importance for successfully handling atoms in their Rydberg states.The most popular theoretical approaches to computing ionization parameters of the Rydberg atom in the BBR are based on the different versions of the model potential (MP) method, quasiclassical models. We mention a simple approximation for the rate of thermal ionization of Rydberg atoms, based on the results of our systematic calculations in the Simons-Fues MP [1]. In fact, using the MP approach is very close to the quantum defect method and other semi-empirical methods, which were also widely used in the past few years for calculating atom-field interaction amplitudes in the lowest orders of the perturbation theory. The significant advantage of the Simons-Fues MP method in comparison with other models is the possibility of presenting analytically (in terms of the hypergeometric functions) the characteristics for arbitrarily high orders, related to both bound-bound and bound-free transitions. Naturally, the standard methods of the theoretical atomic physics, including the Hartree-Fock and Dirac-Fock approximations, should be used in order to determine the thermal ionization characteristics of neutral and Rydberg atoms [2]. Note that the correct treatment of the heavy Rydberg atoms parameters in an external electromagnetic field requires using strictly relativistic models. Here we apply an energy approach [11][12][13][14][15] and relativistic perturbation theory (PT)

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