Coherent dipole-dipole coupling between two single atoms at a Förster resonance

Abstract

Resonant energy transfers, i.e. the non-radiative redistribution of an electronic excitation between two particles coupled by the dipole-dipole interaction, lie at the heart of a variety of chemical and biological phenomena, most notably photosynthesis. In 1948, Förster established the theoretical basis of fluorescence resonant energy transfer (FRET), paving the ground towards the widespread use of FRET as a "spectroscopic ruler" for the determination of nanometer-scale distances in biomolecules. The underlying mechanism is a coherent dipole-dipole coupling between particles, as already recognized in the early days of quantum mechanics, but this coherence was not directly observed so far. Here, we study, both spectroscopically and in the time domain, the coherent, dipolar-induced exchange of electronic excitations between two single Rydberg atoms separated by a controlled distance as large as 15 microns, and brought into resonance by applying a small electric field. The coherent oscillation of the system between two degenerate pair states occurs at a frequency that scales as the inverse third power of the distance, the hallmark of dipole-dipole interactions. Our results not only demonstrate, at the most fundamental level of two atoms, the basic mechanism underlying FRET, but also open exciting prospects for active tuning of strong, coherent interactions in quantum many-body systems.

4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Dipole blockade in a cold Rydberg atomic sample
• Electric-field induced dipole blockade with Rydberg atoms
• Spatially resolved observation of dipole-dipole interaction between Rydberg atoms

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• Strongly interacting ultracold polar molecules
• Quantum simulation of energy transport with embedded Rydberg aggregates
• Exotic topological density waves in cold atomic Rydberg fermions
• Quantum and Nonlinear Optics in Strongly Interacting Atomic Ensembles
• Complete quantum coherent control of ultracold molecular collisions
• One-step implementation of Toffoli gate for neutral atoms based on unconventional Rydberg pumping
• Electromagnetically induced transparency of a single-photon in dipole-coupled one-dimensional atomic clouds
• Multiphoton blockade and antibunching in an optical cavity coupled with dipole-dipole interacting $\Lambda$-type atoms
• Three-body Förster resonance of a new type in Rydberg atoms
• Probing resonant energy transfer in collisions of ammonia with Rydberg helium atoms by microwave spectroscopy
• Resonance-enhanced collective effect in a triangle arrangement of Rydberg atoms with anisotropic interactions
• Strong zero-field Förster resonances in K-Rb Rydberg systems