Events on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022
- Coherent Control of Processes that Break the Dipole Blockade
- Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Place:
- Speaker: Aaron Reinhard, Kenyon College
- Abstract: The Rydberg excitation blockade has enabled impressive achievements in quantum information and simulation. However, unwanted processes may compromise the single-excitation behavior of the blockade and reduce its efficiency. We study one such process, state-mixing interactions. When ultracold atoms are excited to Rydberg states near Förster resonance, up to ∼ 50% of the detected atoms can be found in dipole-coupled product states within tens of ns of excitation. There has been disagreement in the literature regarding the mechanism by which this mixing occurs.
We use state-selective field ionization spectroscopy with single-event resolution to probe state mixing near the 43D5/2 Förster resonance in Rb. Our method allows us to control the mechanism by which state-mixing interactions occur during Rydberg excitation. Additionally, we use a rotary echo technique to demonstrate the coherence of the evolution of mixed three-particle states during our Rydberg excitation pulses. The ability to coherently control state-mixing events will allow experimenters to avoid this unwanted process when implementing quantum devices using neutral atoms.