Observation of collective decay dynamics of a single Rydberg superatom
Quantum Physics
2021-01-04 v1 Atomic Physics
Abstract
We experimentally investigate the collective decay of a single Rydberg superatom, formed by an ensemble of thousands of individual atoms supporting only a single excitation due to the Rydberg blockade. Instead of observing a constant decay rate determined by the collective coupling strength to the driving field, we show that the enhanced emission of the single stored photon into the forward direction of the coupled optical mode depends on the dynamics of the superatom before the decay. We find that the observed decay rates are reproduced by an expanded model of the superatom which includes coherent coupling between the collective bright state and subradiant states.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2005.05089,
title = {Observation of collective decay dynamics of a single Rydberg superatom},
author = {Nina Stiesdal and Hannes Busche and Jan Kumlin and Kevin Kleinbeck and Hans Peter Büchler and Sebastian Hofferberth},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.05089},
year = {2021}
}