Nonclassical storage and retrieval of a multiphoton pulse in cold Rydberg atoms

Abstract

We investigate the storage and retrieval of a multiphoton probe field in cold Rydberg atoms with an effective method based on the superatom model. This probe field is found greatly attenuated in light intensity and two-photon correlation yet suffering little temporal broadening as a result of the partial dipole blockade of Rydberg excitation. In particular, the output field energy exhibits an intriguing saturation effect against the input field energy accompanied by an inhomogeneous nonclassical antibunching feature as a manifestation of the dynamic cooperative optical nonlinearity. Our numerical results are qualitatively consistent with those in a recent experiment and could be extended to pursue quantum information applications of nonclassical light fields.

Light manipulation by dual channel storage in ultra-cold Rydberg medium

“…This is very different from the storage process of the ladder configuration. [42] Figure 4 shows the evolution of the probe field intensity and two-photon correlation during the storage and retrieval processes of case B. The storage process is exactly the same as that in case A while the difference mainly appears in the retrieval process.…”

“…In these experiments, nonlinear manipulation of photons can be achieved via the conversion between Rydberg spin coherence and the photons. Some theoretical methods, [39][40][41][42][43][44] e.g, effective field theory (EFT) and superatom (SA) theory, to simulate the propagation and storage processes have also been proposed. In Ref.…”

“…In Ref. [42], an SA model is applied to study light storage and retrieval process in a Rydberg atomic medium with three-level ladder configuration. The retrieved field energy exhibits the saturation effect against the input field energy accompanied by the anti-bunching feature.…”

Facilitation of controllable excitation in Rydberg atomic ensembles

“…So far, many of these achievements depend on the Rydberg blockade mechanism since it causes a single atom's excitation shared by N ensemble atoms within the range of blockade radius [21][22][23][24]. This fully-blockaded atomic ensemble (or so-called a superatom) can be described by a reduced three-level structure using symmetric Dicke states [25], and benefits from a √ N -enhancement of the weak probe strength in the collective excitation environment [26][27][28]. * The National Science Foundation of China (Grants No.…”

“…[21][22][23][24] This fully-blockaded atomic ensemble (or so-called a superatom) can be described by a reduced three-level structure using symmetric Dicke states, [25] and benefits from a √ Nenhancement of the weak probe strength in the collective excitation environment. [26][27][28] Although the superatom model could fundamentally exhibit the mechanism of Rydberg blockade, it only works with a perfect electromagnetically induced transparency condition where the probe strength is much weaker than that of the coupling one. [29] A stronger probe field will lead to unexpected multi-photon processes associated with various intermediate and Rydberg states, which renders the incoherent dissipative decays onto other asymmetric collective states nonnegligible.…”