Four-wave mixing in ultracold atoms using intermediate Rydberg states

2008/08/06 by E. Brekke, Erik Brekke, J. O. Day +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Mixing (physics) #Physics #Quantum #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Rydberg formula #Ultracold atom #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.78.063830

published as Phys. Rev. A 77, 063830 (2009) · 4 pages, 6 figures

arxiv created 2008/08/06 · openalex publication_date 2008/12/18 · arxiv updated 2012/07/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Ultracold Rb atoms were used to demonstrate nondegenerate four-wave mixing through a Rydberg state. Continuous 5S\text\ensuremath-5P\text\ensuremath-nD two-photon excitation to the Rydberg state was combined with an nD\text\ensuremath-6P tuned laser in a phase-matched geometry. The angular dependence, spatial profile, and dependence on detuning were investigated, showing good agreement with theory. Under optimum conditions 50% of the radiation was emitted into the phase-matched direction. The directional emission is promising for studying quantum effects in blockaded atom clouds.

Citations

• Dipole Blockade and Quantum Information Processing in Mesoscopic Atomic Ensembles
• Local Blockade of Rydberg Excitation in an Ultracold Gas
• Rydberg Excitation of Bose-Einstein Condensates
• Evidence for Coherent Collective Rydberg Excitation in the Strong Blockade Regime
• Rabi Oscillations and Excitation Trapping in the Coherent Excitation of a Mesoscopic Frozen Rydberg Gas
• Dynamics of low-density ultracold Rydberg gases