Generation of 480 nm picosecond pulses for ultrafast excitation of Rydberg atoms

TL;DR

This paper reports the development of a 480 nm, 10 ps pulsed laser system that enables ultrafast excitation of Rydberg atoms with high efficiency, advancing quantum technology applications.

Contribution

The authors designed and improved a pulsed laser system using an injection-seeded OPA to achieve stable, high-energy 10 ps pulses for ultrafast Rydberg atom excitation.

Findings

Achieved ~90% excitation probability of Rydberg atoms.

Reduced energy fluctuation from 30% to 6%.

Demonstrated ultrafast excitation beyond traditional nanosecond timescales.

Abstract

Atoms in Rydberg states are an important building block for emerging quantum technologies. While the excitation to the Rydberg orbitals are typically achieved in more than tens of nanoseconds, the physical limit is in fact much faster, at the ten picoseconds level. Here, we tackle such ultrafast Rydberg excitation of a Rubidium atom by designing a dedicated pulsed laser system generating 480 nm pulses of 10 ps duration. In particular, we improved upon our previous design by using an injection-seeded optical parametric amplifier (OPA) to obtain stable pulsed energy, decreasing the fluctuation from 30 % to 6 %. We then succeeded in ultrafast excitation of Rydberg atoms with excitation probability of ~90 %, not limited anymore by energy fluctuation but rather by the atomic state preparation, addressable in future works. This achievement broadens the range of applications of Rydberg atoms.