2017/07/10 by Jiteng Sheng, Yuanxi Chao, Santosh Kumar +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.96.033813
published as Phys. Rev. A 96, 033813 (2017) · 8 pages, 7 figures
arxiv created 2017/07/10 · arxiv updated 2017/09/13
We present an experimental study of cavity assisted Rydberg atom electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) using a high-finesse optical cavity (F ∼ 28000). Rydberg atoms are excited via a two-photon transition in a ladder-type EIT configuration. A three-peak structure of the cavity transmission spectrum is observed when Rydberg EIT is generated inside the cavity. The two symmetrically spaced side peaks are caused by bright-state polaritons, while the central peak corresponds to a dark-state polariton. Anti-crossing phenomenon and the effects of mirror adsorbate electric fields are studied under different experimental conditions. We determine a lower bound on the coherence time for the system of 7.26 ± 0.06 μs, most likely limited by laser dephasing. The cavity-Rydberg EIT system can be useful for single photon generation using the Rydberg blockade effect, studying many-body physics, and generating novel quantum states amongst many other applications.