Observation of a large, resonant, cross-Kerr nonlinearity in a free-space Rydberg medium

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of a cross-Kerr nonlinearity in a free-space medium based on resonantly-excited, interacting Rydberg atoms and electromagnetically induced transparency. The nonlinearity is used to implement cross-phase modulation between two optical pulses. The nonlinear phase written onto the probe pulse is measured to be as large as $8$ mrad per nW of signal power, corresponding to a ${\chi }^{(3)}$ of $10^{-8}{\text{m}}^2/{\text{V}}^2$. Potential applications range from optical quantum information processing to quantum non-demolition measurement of photon number.

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Steady entangled-state generation via cross-Kerr effect in a ferrimagnetic crystal
• Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution of multiple degrees of freedom of a single photon
• Giant Kerr nonlinearities and magneto-optical rotations in a Rydberg-atom gas via double electromagnetically induced transparency
• Self-organized structures of two-component laser fields and their active controls in a cold Rydberg atomic gas
• A Weakly-Interacting Many-Body System of Rydberg Polaritons Based on Electromagnetically Induced Transparency
• Simultaneous ground-state cooling of multiple degenerate mechanical modes through cross-Kerr effect
• Two-Color Optical Nonlinearity in an Ultracold Rydberg Atom Gas Mixture
• Experimental Demonstration of Stationary Dark-State Polaritons Dressed by Dipole-Dipole Interaction
• Nonlocal Nonlinear Control of Photonic Spin Hall Effect in Strongly Interacting Rydberg Media
• Complete analysis of hyperentangled Bell state in three degrees of freedom using Kerr effect and self-assisted mechanism