Optical coherent manipulation of alkaline-earth circular Rydberg states

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates optical coherent control of alkaline-earth circular Rydberg states in strontium, enabling non-destructive detection and potential for hybrid quantum platforms, overcoming previous limitations of short lifetime and complex detection methods.

Contribution

It introduces a method to coherently manipulate and detect alkaline-earth circular Rydberg states using optical pulses via electrostatic coupling, advancing quantum technology applications.

Findings

Optical manipulation of alkaline-earth circular Rydberg states achieved.

State mapping enables non-destructive, spatially-resolved detection.

Potential for hybrid optical-microwave quantum platforms.

Abstract

Rydberg atoms are ideal tools for quantum technologies. Due to their large size, their dipole-dipole interaction at micrometer-scale distances and their coupling to external fields are huge. Recent experiments vividly exhibit their interest for quantum simulation, in spite of limitations due to the relatively short lifetime of optically-accessible Rydberg levels. These limitations motivate a renewed interest for the long-lived circular Rydberg states . However, detecting them is so far either destructive or complex. Moreover, alkali circular states can be manipulated only by microwave fields, unable to address individual atoms. Alkaline earth circular states, with their optically active second valence electron, can circumvent these problems. Here we show how to use the electrostatic coupling between the two valence electrons of strontium to coherently manipulate a circular Rydberg state with optical pulses. We also use this coupling to map the state of the Rydberg electron onto that of the ionic core. This experiment opens the way to a state-selective spatially-resolved non-destructive detection of the circular states and, beyond, to the realization of a hybrid optical-microwave platform for quantum technology.