Coherent Excitation of Rydberg Atoms in Thermal Vapor Microcells

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that coherent Rydberg atom spectroscopy in thermal vapor microcells of about 2 micrometers can achieve coherence times around 100 nanoseconds, enabling quantum device applications without ultracold setups.

Contribution

It shows for the first time that mesoscopic Rydberg coherence can be maintained in thermal vapor microcells at high temperatures, simplifying experimental requirements.

Findings

Achieved ~100ns coherence times in thermal vapor microcells.

Demonstrated robustness of microcells at 100-300°C.

Identified microcells as promising for quantum devices.

Abstract

The coherent control of mesoscopic ensembles of atoms and Rydberg atom blockade are the basis for proposed quantum devices such as integrable gates and single photon sources. So far, experimental progress has been limited to complex experimental setups that use ultracold atoms. Here, we show that coherence times of ~100ns are achievable with coherent Rydberg atom spectroscopy in um sized thermal vapor cells. We investigated states with principle quantum numbers between 30 and 50. Our results demonstrate that microcells with a size on the order of the blockade radius, ~2um, at temperatures of 100-300C are robust, promising candidates to investigate low dimensional strongly interacting Rydberg gases, construct quantum gates and build single photon sources.