Observation and Measurement of Interaction-Induced Dispersive Optical Nonlinearities in an Ensemble of Cold Rydberg Atoms

Valentina Parigi (1) , Erwan Bimbard (1) , Jovica Stanojevic (1) , Andrew J. Hilliard (1) , Florence Nogrette (1) , Rosa Tualle-Brouri (1) , Alexei Ourjoumtsev (1) , Philippe Grangier (1)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry / Optique Quantique

We observe and measure dispersive optical nonlinearities in an ensemble of cold Rydberg atoms placed inside an optical cavity. The experimental results are in agreement with a simple model where the optical nonlinearities are due to the progressive appearance of a Rydberg blockaded volume within the medium. The measurements allow a direct estimation of the ''blockaded fraction'' of atoms within the atomic ensemble.

Domains: Quantum Physics [quant-ph]; Optics [physics.optics]

Valentina Parigi, Erwan Bimbard, Jovica Stanojevic, Andrew J. Hilliard, Florence Nogrette, et al.. Observation and Measurement of Interaction-Induced Dispersive Optical Nonlinearities in an Ensemble of Cold Rydberg Atoms. Physical Review Letters, 2012, 109, pp.233602. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.233602⟩. ⟨hal-00822984⟩