Rabi flopping between ground and Rydberg states with dipole-dipole atomic interactions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates Rabi oscillations between ground and Rydberg states in small rubidium atom ensembles, highlighting how interactions cause decoherence, with implications for quantum information processing.

Contribution

It experimentally shows Rabi flopping in Rydberg atoms and links decoherence to dipole-dipole interactions, advancing understanding of quantum coherence in atomic systems.

Findings

Single atom Rabi oscillations observed

Multi-atom interactions cause decoherence

Results consistent with van der Waals interactions

Abstract

We demonstrate Rabi flopping of small numbers of $\rm{^{87}Rb}$ atoms between ground and Rydberg states with $n\le 43$. Coherent population oscillations are observed for single atom flopping, while the presence of two or more atoms decoheres the oscillations. We show that these observations are consistent with van der Waals interactions of Rydberg atoms.