Spectral shift and dephasing of electromagnetically induced transparency in an interacting Rydberg gas

TL;DR

This study investigates how strong interactions in a Rydberg gas affect electromagnetically induced transparency, revealing spectral shifts and dephasing that depend on atomic density, Rabi frequency, and Rydberg state, supported by experimental and semi-analytical modeling.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of spectral shifts and dephasing in EIT within interacting Rydberg gases, highlighting the influence of atomic density and cloud size.

Findings

Spectral shift of EIT resonance increases with atomic density.

Spectral dephasing correlates with Rydberg state and density.

Increasing the size of the atomic cloud reduces spectral shift and dephasing.

Abstract

We perform spectroscopic measurements of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a strongly interacting Rydberg gas, and observe a significant spectral shift of the transparency from the single-atom EIT resonance as well as a spectral dephasing of the same order. We characterize the shift and dephasing as a function of atomic density, probe Rabi frequency, and principal quantum number of Rydberg states, and demonstrate that the observed spectral shift and dephasing are reduced if the size of a Gaussian atomic cloud is increased. We simulate our experiment with a semi-analytical model, which gives results in good agreement with our experimental data.