2015/10/31 by E. A. Goldschmidt, Elizabeth A. Goldschmidt, T. Boulier +11
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Dipole #Excitation #Ionization #Laser #Laser linewidth #Optical lattice #Optics #Physics #Population #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Rydberg atom #Rydberg formula #Rydberg state #Scattering #cond-mat.quant-gas #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.116.113001
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 113001 (2016) · 5+3 pages
arxiv created 2016/03/16 · openalex publication_date 2016/03/16 · arxiv updated 2016/03/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We observe interaction-induced broadening of the two-photon 5s-18s transition in 87Rb atoms trapped in a 3D optical lattice. The measured linewidth increases by nearly 2 orders of magnitude with increasing atomic density and excitation strength, with corresponding suppression of resonant scattering and enhancement of off-resonant scattering. We attribute the increased linewidth to resonant dipole-dipole interactions of 18s atoms with blackbody induced population in nearby np states. Over a range of initial atomic densities and excitation strengths, the transition width is described by a single function of the steady-state density of Rydberg atoms, and the observed resonant excitation rate corresponds to that of a two-level system with the measured, rather than natural, linewidth. The broadening mechanism observed here is likely to have negative implications for many proposals with coherently interacting Rydberg atoms.