Transient Density-Induced Dipolar Interactions in a Thin Vapor Cell

Abstract

We exploit the effect of light-induced atomic desorption to produce high atomic densities ($n\gg k^3$) in a rubidium vapor cell. An intense off-resonant laser is pulsed for roughly one nanosecond on a micrometer-sized sapphire-coated cell, which results in the desorption of atomic clouds from both internal surfaces. We probe the transient atomic density evolution by time-resolved absorption spectroscopy.With a temporal resolution of $\approx 1\mathrm{ns}$, we measure the broadening and line shift of the atomic resonances. Both broadening and line shift are attributed to dipole-dipole interactions. This fast switching of the atomic density and dipolar interactions could be the basis for future quantum devices based on the excitation blockade.

arXiv comment13 pages, 4+6 figures

References in corpus (14)

• Dipole Blockade and Quantum Information Processing in Mesoscopic Atomic Ensembles
• ARC: An open-source library for calculating properties of alkali Rydberg atoms
• The cooperative Lamb shift in an atomic nanolayer
• Low-Light-Level Optical Interactions with Rubidium Vapor in a Photonic Bandgap Fiber
• A room temperature single-photon source based on strongly interacting Rydberg atoms
• ElecSus: A program to calculate the electric susceptibility of an atomic ensemble
• UV light-induced atom desorption for large rubidium and potassium magneto-optical traps
• Absolute absorption on rubidium D1 line: including resonant dipole-dipole interactions
• Loading a vapor cell magneto-optic trap using light-induced atom desorption
• The Collective Lamb Shift of a Nanoscale Atomic Vapour Layer within a Sapphire Cavity
• A superatom picture of collective nonclassical light emission and dipole blockade in atom arrays
• Cavity QED Based on Thermal Atoms Interacting with a Photonic Crystal Cavity: A Feasibility Study
• Spectroscopic study of a diffusion-bonded sapphire cell for hot metal vapors
• Collective dipole-dipole interactions in planar nanocavities

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Probing molecules in gas cells of subwavelength thickness with high frequency resolution