Observation of Blackbody Radiation Enhanced Superradiance in ultracold Rydberg Gases

Abstract

An ensemble of excited atoms can synchronize emission of light collectively in a process known as superradiance when its characteristic size is smaller than the wavelength of emitted photons. The underlying superradiance depends strongly on electromagnetic (photon) fields surrounding the atomic ensemble. High mode densities of microwave photons from $300$K blackbody radiation (BBR) significantly enhance decay rates of Rydberg states to neighbouring states, enabling superradiance that is not possible with bare vacuum induced spontaneous decay. Here we report observations of the superradiance of ultracold Rydberg atoms embedded in a bath of room-temperature photons. The temporal evolution of the Rydberg $|nD⟩$ to $|(n+1)P⟩$ superradiant decay of Cs atoms ($n$ the principal quantum number) is measured directly in free space. Theoretical simulations confirm the BBR enhanced superradiance in large Rydberg ensembles. We demonstrate that the van der Waals interactions between Rydberg atoms change the superradiant dynamics and modify the scaling of the superradiance. In the presence of static electric fields, we find that the superradiance becomes slow, potentially due to many-body interaction induced dephasing. Our study provides insights into many-body dynamics of interacting atoms coupled to thermal BBR, and might open a route to the design of blackbody thermometry at microwave frequencies via collective, dissipative photon-atom interactions.

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Cited by in corpus (10)

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• Avalanche terahertz photon detection in a Rydberg tweezer array
• Superradiance-induced multistability in driven Rydberg lattice gases
• Discrete-phase-space method for driven-dissipative dynamics of strongly interacting bosons in optical lattices
• Increasing decoherence rate of Rydberg polaritons due to accumulating dark Rydberg atoms
• Shock wave generation and propagation in dissipative and nonlocal nonlinear Rydberg media
• Dense dipole-dipole-coupled two-level systems in a thermal bath
• Dephasing of ultracold cesium $80D_{5/2}$-Rydberg Electromagnetically Induced Transparency
• Observation of electric field induced superradiance slowdown in ultracold Rydberg atomic gases