Cooperative optical non-linearity due to dipolar interactions in an ultra-cold Rydberg ensemble

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a cooperative optical non-linearity in ultra-cold Rydberg atoms caused by dipolar interactions, with potential applications in quantum optics and information processing.

Contribution

It introduces a method to map dipole-dipole interactions onto an optical field, revealing enhanced non-linearity due to cooperativity in ultra-cold Rydberg ensembles.

Findings

Non-linearity depends on electric field and density

Enhanced non-linearity observed due to cooperativity

Dipolar interactions effectively mapped onto optical signals

Abstract

We demonstrate a cooperative optical non-linearity caused by dipolar interactions between Rydberg atoms in an ultra-cold atomic ensemble. By coupling a probe transition to the Rydberg state we map the strong dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg pairs onto the optical field. We characterize the non-linearity as a function of electric field and density, and demonstrate the enhancement of the optical non-linearity due to cooperativity.