Enhanced spectral profile in the study of Doppler-broadened Rydberg atoms

Abstract

Combination of the electromagnetically-induced-transparency (EIT) effect and Rydberg-state atoms has attracted great attention recently due to its potential application in the photon-photon interaction or qubit operation. In this work, we studied the Rydberg-EIT spectra with room-temperature ${}^{87}$Rb atoms. Spectroscopic data under various experimental parameters all showed that the contrast of EIT transparency as a function of the probe intensity is initially enhanced, reaches a maximum value and then decays gradually. The contrast of spectral profile at the optimum probe field intensity is enhanced by $2-4$ times as compared with that at weak intensity. Moreover, the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectrum can potentially be improved by 1 or 2 order of magnitude. We provided a theoretical model to explain this behavior and clarified its underlying mechanism. Our work overcomes the obstacle of weak signal in the Rydberg-EIT spectrum caused by an apparent relaxation rate of the Rydberg polariton and weak coupling transition strength, and provides the useful knowledge for the Rydberg-EIT study.

9 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Data capacity scaling of a distributed Rydberg atomic receiver array
• Room-temperature biphoton source with a spectral brightness near the ultimate limit
• Thermal resonance-enhanced transparency in room temperature Rydberg gases
• Optical pumping effects on the Rydberg EIT spectrum
• Autler-Townes spectroscopy of a Rydberg ladder
• Optimizing the Rydberg EIT spectrum in a thermal vapor