2018/05/31 by Nina Stiesdal, Jan Kumlin, Kevin Kleinbeck +6
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Electronic structure #Ionization #Photon #Photonics #Physics #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Rydberg atom #Rydberg formula #Rydberg state #Superatom #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.103601
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 103601 (2018)
arxiv created 2018/05/31 · openalex publication_date 2018/09/04 · arxiv updated 2018/09/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report on the experimental observation of nontrivial three-photon correlations imprinted onto initially uncorrelated photons through an interaction with a single Rydberg superatom. Exploiting the Rydberg blockade mechanism, we turn a cold atomic cloud into a single effective emitter with collectively enhanced coupling to a focused photonic mode which gives rise to clear signatures in the connected part of the three-body correlation function of the outgoing photons. We show that our results are in good agreement with a quantitative model for a single, strongly coupled Rydberg superatom. Furthermore, we present an idealized but exactly solvable model of a single two-level system coupled to a photonic mode, which allows for an interpretation of our experimental observations in terms of bound states and scattering states.