2016/05/21 by Arup Bhowmick, Bhowmick, Arup, Dushmanta Kara +3
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Spectroscopy and Laser Applications #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1605.06603
6 pages, 4 figures, under communication in Phys. Rev. Lett
arxiv created 2016/05/21 · openalex publication_date 2016/05/21 · arxiv updated 2016/06/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We demonstrate the phenomenon of blockade in two-photon excitations to the Rydberg state in thermal vapor. A technique based on optical heterodyne is used to measure the dispersion of a probe beam far off resonant to the D2 line of rubidium in the presence of a strong laser beam that couples to the Rydberg state via two-photon resonance. Density dependent suppression of the dispersion peak is observed while coupling to the Rydberg state with principal quantum number, n = 60. The experimental observation is explained using the phenomenon of Rydberg blockade. The blockade radius is measured to be about 2.2 μm which is consistent with the scaling due to the Doppler width of 2-photon resonance in thermal vapor. Our result promises the realization of single photon source and strong single photon non-linearity based on Rydberg blockade in thermal vapor.