Population-resolved measurement of an avoided crossing of light-dressed states

Abstract

A two-level system coupled by a coherent field is a ubiquitous system in atomic and molecular physics. In the rotating wave approximation, the light-dressed states are well described by a simple 2x2 Hamiltonian which can be easily solved analytically and is thus used in quantum mechanics education and as a basis for intuition for more complicated systems. The solution to the Hamiltonian is an avoided crossing between the light-dressed ground and excited states. In experiments, the avoided crossing is probed spectroscopically, meaning only the energies, or eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian, are measured. Here, we present a measurement of the avoided crossing which also resolves population, thus indicating the amplitude coefficients of the eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian. We perform the measurement in Rydberg states of cold rubidium atoms, resolving the energies spectroscopically with our pump lasers and the populations of each state using selective field ionization.

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