Single-photon-level light storage with distributed Rydberg excitations in cold atoms

Year: 2022

Authors: Zhang H., Wu J., Artoni M., La Rocca G.C.

Autors Affiliation: Northeast Normal Univ, Ctr Quantum Sci, Changchun 130024, Peoples R China; Northeast Normal Univ, Sch Phys, Changchun 130024, Peoples R China; Brescia Univ, Dept Engn & Informat Technol, I-25133 Brescia, Italy; Brescia Univ, Ist Nazl Ott INO CNR, I-25133 Brescia, Italy; Scuola Normale Super Pisa, I-56126 Pisa, Italy; CNISM, I-56126 Pisa, Italy

Abstract: We present an improved version of the superatom (SA) model to examine the slow-light dynamics of a few-photons signal field in cold Rydberg atoms with van der Waals (vdW) interactions. A main feature of this version is that it promises consistent estimations on total Rydberg excitations based on dynamic equations of SAs or atoms. We consider two specific cases in which the incident signal field contains more photons with a smaller detuning or less photons with a larger detuning so as to realize the single-photon-level light storage. It is found that vdW interactions play a significant role even for the slow-light dynamics of a single-photon signal field as distributed Rydberg excitations are inevitable in the picture of dark-state polariton. Moreover, the stored (retrieved) signal field exhibits a clearly asymmetric (more symmetric) profile because its leading and trailing edges undergo different (identical) traveling journeys, and higher storage/retrieval efficiencies with well preserved profiles apply only to weaker and well detuned signal fields. These findings are crucial to understand the nontrivial interplay of single-photon-level light storage and distributed Rydberg excitations.

Journal/Review: FRONTIERS OF PHYSICS

Volume: 17 (2)      Pages from: 22502-1  to: 22502-8

More Information: The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11534002 and 12074061), and the Cooperative Program by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (No. PGR00960), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11861131001).
KeyWords: few-photons light storage; distributed Rydberg excitation; cold Rydberg atom; improved superatom model
DOI: 10.1007/s11467-021-1105-6