We demonstrate microwave-to-optical conversion using six-wave mixing in 87Rb atoms where the microwave field couples to two atomic Rydberg states, and propagates collinearly with the converted optical field. We achieve a photon conversion efficiency of ~5% in the linear regime of the converter. In addition, we theoretically investigate all-resonant six-wave mixing and outline a realistic experimental scheme for reaching efficiencies greater than 60%.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1810.09722,
title = {Efficient microwave-to-optical conversion using Rydberg atoms},
author = {Thibault Vogt and Christian Gross and Jingshan Han and Sambit Bikas Pal and Mark Lam and Martin Kiffner and Wenhui Li},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.09722},
year = {2019}
}