Controlled bistability of cold Rydberg excitation with Doppler broadening. (8th February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Hui; Fan, Chu-Hui; Zhang, Han-Xiao; Liu, Yi-Mou; Wu, Jin-Hui
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 52:Number 5(2019:Mar. 01)
• Publication Date: 2019-02-08
• Subjects: quantum optics -- optical bistability -- Doppler effect -- Rydberg atomic ensemble; Atoms -- Periodicals; Molecules -- Periodicals; Optics -- Periodicals; Nuclear physics -- Periodicals; 539.6
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6455/aafdd6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-4075

Abstract

Abstract: We study in theory the single-photon Rydberg excitation in an ensemble of two-level cold atoms at finite low temperatures. Rydberg population plotted against laser detuning may exhibit a nonlinear bistable behavior arising from the dipole–dipole interactions manifested as a van der Waals (vdW) potential. We find that Doppler broadening can result in a remarkable reduction of the bistable region, which may disappear as the atomic temperature increases to a certain value, of the order of tens to hundreds of μ K. This special temperature, depending critically on the vdW potential, can be largely raised by partially eliminating the Doppler effect, when a double-photon excitation scheme is used to replace the single-photon excitation scheme.