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H. Kübler1, B. Huber1, T. Baluktsian1, A. Kölle1, R. Daschner1, J. Shaffer2, R. Löw1 and T. Pfau1 1 5. Physikalisches Institut, Universitöt Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70550 Stuttgart Germany 2 Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Oklahoma, 440 W. Brooks Street, Norman, Oklahoma 73019, USA In order to create quantum devices based on the Rydberg blockade mechanism, it is necessary to have a confinement of the excitation volume to less than the blockade radius in a frozen gas of atoms; i.e. the excitation times need to be shorter than the timescales of the respective dephasing mechanisms. While ultracold gases seem to be the obvious choice, our approach utilizes thermal atomic vapor in small glass cells which offer multiple advantages like good optical access and scalability. Such a system can be realized by confining the atoms to geometries in the µm regime. Lifetime-limiting effects due to the method of confinement like resonant interactions of the Rydberg atoms with polaritonic excitations in the glass have been studied [1]. Utilizing a bandwidth-limited pulsed laser system for the excitation we can create high Rabi-frequencies and thus short enough excitation times. First measurements of two-photon-excitations permitted probing of the Rydberg excitation dynamics on a ns-timescale. [1] Kübler, H., Shaffer, J. P., Baluktsian, T., Löw, R. & Pfau, T. Coherent excitation of Rydberg atoms in micrometre-sized atomic vapour cells, Nature Photon. 4, 112-116 (2010) |
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