Controlling the interactions of a few cold Rb Rydberg atoms by radiofrequency-assisted Förster resonances

Abstract

Long-range interactions between cold Rydberg atoms, which are used in many important applications, can be enhanced using Förster resonances between collective many-body states controlled by an external electric field. Here we report on the first experimental observation of highly-resolved radio-frequency-assisted Förster resonances in a few cold Rb Rydberg atoms. We also observed radio-frequency-induced Förster resonances which cannot be tuned by a dc electric field. They imply an efficient transition from van der Waals to resonant dipole-dipole interaction due to Floquet sidebands of Rydberg levels appearing in the rf-field. This method can be applied to enhance the interactions of almost arbitrary Rydberg atoms with large principal quantum numbers.

5 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Reducing the sensitivity of Rydberg atoms to dc electric fields using two-frequency ac field dressing
• Probing interactions between Rydberg atoms with large electric dipole moments in amplitude modulated electric fields
• A simple digital system for tuning and long-term frequency stabilisation of a CW Ti:Sapphire laser