Trapping and coherent manipulation of a Rydberg atom on a microfabricated device: a proposal

Abstract

We propose to apply atom-chip techniques to the trapping of a single atom in a circular Rydberg state. The small size of microfabricated structures will allow for trap geometries with microwave cut-off frequencies high enough to inhibit the spontaneous emission of the Rydberg atom, paving the way to complete control of both external and internal degrees of freedom over very long times. Trapping is achieved using carefully designed electric fields, created by a simple pattern of electrodes. We show that it is possible to excite, and then trap, one and only one Rydberg atom from a cloud of ground state atoms confined on a magnetic atom chip, itself integrated with the Rydberg trap. Distinct internal states of the atom are simultaneously trapped, providing us with a two-level system extremely attractive for atom-surface and atom-atom interaction studies. We describe a method for reducing by three orders of magnitude dephasing due to Stark shifts, induced by the trapping field, of the internal transition frequency. This allows for, in combination with spin-echo techniques, maintenance of an internal coherence over times in the second range. This method operates via a controlled light shift rendering the two internal states' Stark shifts almost identical. We thoroughly identify and account for sources of imperfection in order to verify at each step the realism of our proposal.

Accepted in EPJD

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Cited by in corpus (20)

• Quantum information with Rydberg atoms
• Quantum computing with atomic qubits and Rydberg interactions: Progress and challenges
• Towards quantum simulation with circular Rydberg atoms
• Spatially Resolved Excitation of Rydberg Atoms and Surface Effects on an Atom Chip
• Magic-wavelength optical traps for Rydberg atoms
• Quantum computing implementations with neutral particles
• Bose-Einstein condensation on a superconducting atom chip
• Cold and Ultracold Rydberg Atoms in Strong Magnetic Fields
• Coherent manipulation of cold Rydberg atoms near the surface of an atom chip
• Quantum detection of electronic flying qubits
• Energy shifts of Rydberg atoms due to patch fields near metal surfaces
• Rydberg atoms with a reduced sensitivity to dc and low-frequency electric fields
• Reducing the sensitivity of Rydberg atoms to dc electric fields using two-frequency ac field dressing
• Indium tin oxide films meet circular Rydberg atoms: prospects for novel quantum simulation schemes
• Tune-out wavelengths and landscape modulated polarizabilities of alkali Rydberg atoms in infrared optical lattices
• Reduction of the dc electric field sensitivity of circular Rydberg states using non-resonant dressing fields
• Reducing Rydberg state dc polarizability by microwave dressing
• Control of atomic Rydberg states using guided electrons
• Fabrication of an atom chip for Rydberg atom-metal surface interaction studies
• Cavity polariton blockade for non-local entangling gates with trapped atoms