English

Effects of higher-order Casimir-Polder interactions on Rydberg atom spectroscopy

Atomic Physics 2024-04-23 v1 Quantum Physics

Abstract

In the extreme near-field, when the spatial extension of the atomic wavefunction is no longer negligible compared to the atom-surface distance, the dipole approximation is no longer sufficient to describe Casimir-Polder interactions. Here we calculate the higher-order, quadrupole and octupole, contributions to Casimir-Polder energy shifts of Rydberg atoms close to a dielectric surface. We subsequently investigate the effects of these higher-order terms in thin-cell and selective reflection spectroscopy. Beyond its fundamental interest, this new regime of extremely small atom surface separations is relevant for quantum technology applications with Rydberg or surface-bound atoms interfacing with photonic platforms.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2404.13354,
  title  = {Effects of higher-order Casimir-Polder interactions on Rydberg atom spectroscopy},
  author = {Biplab Dutta and Joao Carlos de Aquino Carvalho and Guadalupe Garcia-Arellano and Paolo Pedri and Athanasios Laliotis and Chris Boldt and Jivesh Kaushal and Stefan Scheel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.13354},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

to appear in Physical Review Research