A system of three external cavity diode lasers is used to excite Rydberg states in rubidium. The 5S→5P→5D transitions are driven using lasers with λ = 780 and 776 nm respectively. From the 5D state, atoms fluoresce down to the 6P state. The final transition to Rydberg levels is from the 6P state with laser light near λ = 1016 nm. The nS and nD Rydberg states are accessible directly and with the application of a modest electric field nP states can also be excited. As a test of this system, Stark spectra are collected for nD and nP states.

© 2011 OSA

1. W. R. Anderson, J. R. Veale, and T. F. Gallagher, “Resonant dipole–dipole energy transfer in a nearly frozen Rydberg gas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 249–252 (1998). [CrossRef]
2. I. Mourachko, D. Comparat, F. de Tomasi, A. Fioretti, P. Nosbaum, V. M. Akulin, and P. Pillet, “Many-body effects in a frozen Rydberg gas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 253–256 (1998). [CrossRef]
3. D. Tong, S. M. Farooqi, J. Stanojevic, S. Drishnan, Y. P. Zhang, R. Côté, E. E. Eyler, and P. L. Gould, “Local blockade of Rydberg excitation in an ultracold gas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 063001 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
4. T. Vogt, M. Viteau, J. Zhao, A. Chotia, D. Comparat, and P. Pillet, “Dipole blockade at Förster resonances in high-resolution laser excitation of Rydberg states of cesium atoms,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 083003 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
5. E. Urban, T. A. Johnson, T. Henage, L. Isenhower, D. D. Yavuz, T. G. Walker, and M. Saffman, “Observation of Rydberg blockade between two atoms,” Nat. Phys. 5, 110–114 (2009). [CrossRef]
6. A. Gaëtan, Y. Miroshnychenko, T. Wilk, A. Chotia, M. Viteau, D. Comparat, P. Pillet, A. Browaeys, and P. Grangier, “Observation of collective excitation of two individual atoms in the Rydberg blockade regime,” Nat. Phys. 5, 115–118 (2009). [CrossRef]
7. D. Comparat and P. Pillet, “Dipole blockade in a cold Rydberg atomic sample [Invited],” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27, A208–A232 (2010). [CrossRef]
8. M. D. Lukin and P. R. Hemmer, “Quantum entanglement via optical control of atom–atom interactions,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2818–2821 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
9. D. Jaksch, J. I. Cirac, P. Zoller, S. L. Rolston, R. Côté, and M. D. Lukin, “Fast quantum gates for neutral atoms,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2208–2211 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
10. M. Saffman, T. G. Walker, and K. Mølmer, “Quantum information with Rydberg atoms,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 2313–2363 (2010). [CrossRef]
11. L. Isenhower, E. Urban, X. L. Zhang, A. T. Gill, T. Henage, T. A. Johnson, T. G. Walker, and M. Saffman, “Demonstration of a neutral atom controlled-NOT quantum gate,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 010503 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
12. T. Wilk, A. Gaëtan, C. Evellin, J. Wolters, Y. Miroshnychenko, P. Grangier, and A. Browaeys, “Entanglement of two individual neutral atoms using Rydberg blockade,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 010502 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
13. A. Fioretti, D. Comparat, C. Drag, T. F. Gallagher, and P. Pillet, “Long-range forces between cold atoms,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1839–1842 (1999). [CrossRef]
14. M. P. Robinson, B. Laburthe Tolra, Michael W. Noel, T. F. Gallagher, and P. Pillet, “Spontaneous evolution of Rydberg atoms into an ultracold plasma,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4466–4469 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
15. S. K. Dutta, D. Feldbaum, A. Walz-Flannigan, J. R. Guest, and G. Raithel, “High-angular-momentum states in cold Rydberg gasses,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3993–3996 (2001). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
16. T. C. Killian, T. Pattard, T. Pohl, and J. M. Rost, “Ultracold neutral plasmas,” Phys. Rep. 449, 77–130 (2007). [CrossRef]
17. C. Boisseau, I. Simbotin, and R. Côté, “Macrodimers: ultralong range Rydberg molecules,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 133004 (2002). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
18. S. M. Farooqi, D. Tong, S. Krishnan, J. Stanojevic, Y. P. Zhang, J. R. Ensher, A. S. Estrin, C. Boisseau, R. Côté, E. E. Eyler, and P. L. Gould, “Long-range molecular resonances in a cold Rydberg gas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 183002 (2003).
19. K. R. Overstreet, A. Schwettmann, J. Tallant, D. Booth, and J. P. Shaffer, “Observation of electric-field-induced Cs Rydberg atom macrodimers,” Nat. Phys. 5, 581–585 (2009). [CrossRef]
20. C. H. Greene, A. S. Dickinson, and H. R. Sadeghpour, “Creation of polar and nonpolar ultra-long-range Rydberg molecules,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2458–2461 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
21. V. Bendowsky, B. Butscher, J. Nipper, J. P. Shaffer, R. Löw, and T. Pfau, “Observation of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules,” Nature 458, 1005–1008 (2009). [CrossRef]
22. V. Bendkowsky, B. Butscher, J. Nipper, J. B. Balewski, J. P. Shaffer, R. Löw, T. Pfau, W. Li, J. Stanojevic, T. Pohl, and J. M. Rost, “Rydberg trimers and excited dimers bound by internal quantum reflection,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 163201 (2010). [CrossRef]
23. K. B. MacAdam, A. Steinbach, and C. Wieman, “A narrow-band tunable diode laser system with grating feedback and a saturated absorption spectrometer for Cs and Rb,” Am. J. Phys. 60, 1098–1111 (1992). [CrossRef]
24. C. Iu, G. D. Stevens, and H. Metcalf, “Instrumentation for multistep excitation of lithium atoms to Rydberg states,” Appl. Opt. 34, 2640–2644 (1995). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
25. A. Grabowski, R. Heidemann, R. Löw, J. Stuhler, and T. Pfau, “High resolution Rydberg spectroscopy of ultra-cold rubidium atoms,” Fortschr. Phys. 54, 765–775 (2006). [CrossRef]
26. M. Viteau, J. Radogostowicz, M. G. Bason, N. Malossi, D. Ciampini, O. Morsch, and E. Arimondo, “Rydberg spectroscopy of a Rb MOT in the presence of applied or ion created electric fields,” Opt. Express 19, 6007–6019 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
27. P. Thoumany, Th. Germann, T. Hänsch, G. Stania, L. Urbonas, and Th. Becker, “Spectroscopy of rubidium Rydberg states with three diode lasers,” J. Mod. Opt. 56, 2055–2060 (2009). [CrossRef]
28. B. Sanguinetti, H. O. Majeed, M. L. Jones, and B. T. H. Varcoe, “Precision measurements of quantum defects in the nP3/2 Rydberg states of 85Rb,” J. Phys. B 42, 165004 (2009). [CrossRef]
29. L. A. M. Johnson, O. H. Majeed, B. Sanguinetti, Th. Becker, and B. T. H. Varcoe, “Absolute frequency measurements of 85Rb nF7/2 Rydberg states using purely optical detection,” New J. Phys. 12, 063028 (2010). [CrossRef]
30. T. T. Grove, V. Sanchez-Villicana, B. C. Duncan, S. Maleki, and P. L. Gould, “Two-photon two-color diode laser spectroscopy of the Rb 5D5/2 state,” Phys. Scr. 52, 271–276 (1995). [CrossRef]
31. T. Meijer, J. D. White, B. Smeets, M. Jeppesen, and R. E. Scholten, “Blue five-level frequency-upconversion system in rubidium,” Opt. Lett. 31, 1002–1004 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
32. W. Süptitz, B. C. Duncan, and P. L. Gould, “Efficient 5D excitation of trapped Rb atoms using pulses of diode-laser light in the counterintuitive order,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14, 1001–1008 (1997). [CrossRef]
33. E. Paradis, B. Barrett, A. Kumarakrishnan, R. Zhang, and G. Raithel, “Observation of superfluorescent emissions from laser-cooled atoms,” Phys. Rev. A 77, 043419 (2008). [CrossRef]
34. D. Sheng, A. Pérez Galván, and L. A. Orozco, “Lifetime measurements of the 5d states of rubidium,” Phys. Rev. A 78, 062506 (2008). [CrossRef]
35. E. Gomez, S. Aubin, L. A. Orozco, and G. D. Sprouse, “Lifetime and hyperfine splitting measurements on the 7s and 6p levels in rubidium,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 21, 2058–2067 (2004). [CrossRef]
36. A. J. Olson and S. K. Mayer, “Electromagnetically induced transparency in rubidium,” Am. J. Phys. 77, 116–121 (2009). [CrossRef]
37. A. Hemmerich, D. H. McIntyre, C. Zimmermann, and T. W. Hänsch, “Second-harmonic generation and optical stabilization of a diode laser in an external ring resonator,” Opt. Lett. 15, 372–374 (1990). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
38. M. L. Zimmerman, M. G. Littman, M. M. Kash, and D. Kleppner, “Stark structure of the Rydberg states of alkali-metal atoms,” Phys. Rev. A 20, 2251–2275 (1979). [CrossRef]
39. W. Li, I. Mourachko, M. W. Noel, and T. F. Gallagher, “Millimeter-wave spectroscopy of cold Rb Rydberg atoms in a magneto-optical trap: quantum defects of the ns, np, and nd series,” Phys. Rev. A 67, 052502 (2003). [CrossRef]
40. M. S. Safronova, C. J. Williams, and C. W. Clark, “Relativistic many-body calculations of electric-dipole matrix elements, lifetimes, and polarizabilities in rubidium,” Phys. Rev. A 69, 022509 (2004). [CrossRef]
41. S. K. Dutta, D. Feldbaum, A. Walz-Flannigan, J. R. Guest, and G. Raithel, “High-angular-momentum states in cold Rydberg gasses,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3993–3996 (2001). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
42. W. Li, M. W. Noel, M. P. Robinson, P. J. Tanner, T. F. Gallagher, D. Comparat, B. Laburthe Tolra, N. Vanhaecke, T. Vogt, N. Zahzam, P. Pillet, and D. A. Tate, “Evolution dynamics of a dense frozen Rydberg gas to plasma,” Phys. Rev. A 70, 042713 (2004). [CrossRef]

Am. J. Phys.

• K. B. MacAdam, A. Steinbach, and C. Wieman, “A narrow-band tunable diode laser system with grating feedback and a saturated absorption spectrometer for Cs and Rb,” Am. J. Phys. 60, 1098–1111 (1992). [CrossRef]
• A. J. Olson and S. K. Mayer, “Electromagnetically induced transparency in rubidium,” Am. J. Phys. 77, 116–121 (2009). [CrossRef]

Appl. Opt.

• C. Iu, G. D. Stevens, and H. Metcalf, “Instrumentation for multistep excitation of lithium atoms to Rydberg states,” Appl. Opt. 34, 2640–2644 (1995). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Fortschr. Phys.

• A. Grabowski, R. Heidemann, R. Löw, J. Stuhler, and T. Pfau, “High resolution Rydberg spectroscopy of ultra-cold rubidium atoms,” Fortschr. Phys. 54, 765–775 (2006). [CrossRef]

J. Mod. Opt.

• P. Thoumany, Th. Germann, T. Hänsch, G. Stania, L. Urbonas, and Th. Becker, “Spectroscopy of rubidium Rydberg states with three diode lasers,” J. Mod. Opt. 56, 2055–2060 (2009). [CrossRef]

J. Opt. Soc. Am. B

• W. Süptitz, B. C. Duncan, and P. L. Gould, “Efficient 5D excitation of trapped Rb atoms using pulses of diode-laser light in the counterintuitive order,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14, 1001–1008 (1997). [CrossRef]
• E. Gomez, S. Aubin, L. A. Orozco, and G. D. Sprouse, “Lifetime and hyperfine splitting measurements on the 7s and 6p levels in rubidium,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 21, 2058–2067 (2004). [CrossRef]
• D. Comparat and P. Pillet, “Dipole blockade in a cold Rydberg atomic sample [Invited],” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27, A208–A232 (2010). [CrossRef]

J. Phys. B

• B. Sanguinetti, H. O. Majeed, M. L. Jones, and B. T. H. Varcoe, “Precision measurements of quantum defects in the nP3/2 Rydberg states of 85Rb,” J. Phys. B 42, 165004 (2009). [CrossRef]

Nat. Phys.

• K. R. Overstreet, A. Schwettmann, J. Tallant, D. Booth, and J. P. Shaffer, “Observation of electric-field-induced Cs Rydberg atom macrodimers,” Nat. Phys. 5, 581–585 (2009). [CrossRef]
• E. Urban, T. A. Johnson, T. Henage, L. Isenhower, D. D. Yavuz, T. G. Walker, and M. Saffman, “Observation of Rydberg blockade between two atoms,” Nat. Phys. 5, 110–114 (2009). [CrossRef]
• A. Gaëtan, Y. Miroshnychenko, T. Wilk, A. Chotia, M. Viteau, D. Comparat, P. Pillet, A. Browaeys, and P. Grangier, “Observation of collective excitation of two individual atoms in the Rydberg blockade regime,” Nat. Phys. 5, 115–118 (2009). [CrossRef]

Nature

• V. Bendowsky, B. Butscher, J. Nipper, J. P. Shaffer, R. Löw, and T. Pfau, “Observation of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules,” Nature 458, 1005–1008 (2009). [CrossRef]

New J. Phys.

• L. A. M. Johnson, O. H. Majeed, B. Sanguinetti, Th. Becker, and B. T. H. Varcoe, “Absolute frequency measurements of 85Rb nF7/2 Rydberg states using purely optical detection,” New J. Phys. 12, 063028 (2010). [CrossRef]

Opt. Express

• M. Viteau, J. Radogostowicz, M. G. Bason, N. Malossi, D. Ciampini, O. Morsch, and E. Arimondo, “Rydberg spectroscopy of a Rb MOT in the presence of applied or ion created electric fields,” Opt. Express 19, 6007–6019 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Lett.

• T. Meijer, J. D. White, B. Smeets, M. Jeppesen, and R. E. Scholten, “Blue five-level frequency-upconversion system in rubidium,” Opt. Lett. 31, 1002–1004 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• A. Hemmerich, D. H. McIntyre, C. Zimmermann, and T. W. Hänsch, “Second-harmonic generation and optical stabilization of a diode laser in an external ring resonator,” Opt. Lett. 15, 372–374 (1990). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Phys. Rep.

• T. C. Killian, T. Pattard, T. Pohl, and J. M. Rost, “Ultracold neutral plasmas,” Phys. Rep. 449, 77–130 (2007). [CrossRef]

Phys. Rev. A

• E. Paradis, B. Barrett, A. Kumarakrishnan, R. Zhang, and G. Raithel, “Observation of superfluorescent emissions from laser-cooled atoms,” Phys. Rev. A 77, 043419 (2008). [CrossRef]
• D. Sheng, A. Pérez Galván, and L. A. Orozco, “Lifetime measurements of the 5d states of rubidium,” Phys. Rev. A 78, 062506 (2008). [CrossRef]
• M. L. Zimmerman, M. G. Littman, M. M. Kash, and D. Kleppner, “Stark structure of the Rydberg states of alkali-metal atoms,” Phys. Rev. A 20, 2251–2275 (1979). [CrossRef]
• W. Li, I. Mourachko, M. W. Noel, and T. F. Gallagher, “Millimeter-wave spectroscopy of cold Rb Rydberg atoms in a magneto-optical trap: quantum defects of the ns, np, and nd series,” Phys. Rev. A 67, 052502 (2003). [CrossRef]
• M. S. Safronova, C. J. Williams, and C. W. Clark, “Relativistic many-body calculations of electric-dipole matrix elements, lifetimes, and polarizabilities in rubidium,” Phys. Rev. A 69, 022509 (2004). [CrossRef]
• W. Li, M. W. Noel, M. P. Robinson, P. J. Tanner, T. F. Gallagher, D. Comparat, B. Laburthe Tolra, N. Vanhaecke, T. Vogt, N. Zahzam, P. Pillet, and D. A. Tate, “Evolution dynamics of a dense frozen Rydberg gas to plasma,” Phys. Rev. A 70, 042713 (2004). [CrossRef]

Phys. Rev. Lett.

• S. K. Dutta, D. Feldbaum, A. Walz-Flannigan, J. R. Guest, and G. Raithel, “High-angular-momentum states in cold Rydberg gasses,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3993–3996 (2001). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• V. Bendkowsky, B. Butscher, J. Nipper, J. B. Balewski, J. P. Shaffer, R. Löw, T. Pfau, W. Li, J. Stanojevic, T. Pohl, and J. M. Rost, “Rydberg trimers and excited dimers bound by internal quantum reflection,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 163201 (2010). [CrossRef]
• C. H. Greene, A. S. Dickinson, and H. R. Sadeghpour, “Creation of polar and nonpolar ultra-long-range Rydberg molecules,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2458–2461 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• C. Boisseau, I. Simbotin, and R. Côté, “Macrodimers: ultralong range Rydberg molecules,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 133004 (2002). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• S. M. Farooqi, D. Tong, S. Krishnan, J. Stanojevic, Y. P. Zhang, J. R. Ensher, A. S. Estrin, C. Boisseau, R. Côté, E. E. Eyler, and P. L. Gould, “Long-range molecular resonances in a cold Rydberg gas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 183002 (2003).
• L. Isenhower, E. Urban, X. L. Zhang, A. T. Gill, T. Henage, T. A. Johnson, T. G. Walker, and M. Saffman, “Demonstration of a neutral atom controlled-NOT quantum gate,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 010503 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• T. Wilk, A. Gaëtan, C. Evellin, J. Wolters, Y. Miroshnychenko, P. Grangier, and A. Browaeys, “Entanglement of two individual neutral atoms using Rydberg blockade,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 010502 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• A. Fioretti, D. Comparat, C. Drag, T. F. Gallagher, and P. Pillet, “Long-range forces between cold atoms,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1839–1842 (1999). [CrossRef]
• M. P. Robinson, B. Laburthe Tolra, Michael W. Noel, T. F. Gallagher, and P. Pillet, “Spontaneous evolution of Rydberg atoms into an ultracold plasma,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4466–4469 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• S. K. Dutta, D. Feldbaum, A. Walz-Flannigan, J. R. Guest, and G. Raithel, “High-angular-momentum states in cold Rydberg gasses,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3993–3996 (2001). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• M. D. Lukin and P. R. Hemmer, “Quantum entanglement via optical control of atom–atom interactions,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2818–2821 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• D. Jaksch, J. I. Cirac, P. Zoller, S. L. Rolston, R. Côté, and M. D. Lukin, “Fast quantum gates for neutral atoms,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2208–2211 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• W. R. Anderson, J. R. Veale, and T. F. Gallagher, “Resonant dipole–dipole energy transfer in a nearly frozen Rydberg gas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 249–252 (1998). [CrossRef]
• I. Mourachko, D. Comparat, F. de Tomasi, A. Fioretti, P. Nosbaum, V. M. Akulin, and P. Pillet, “Many-body effects in a frozen Rydberg gas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 253–256 (1998). [CrossRef]
• D. Tong, S. M. Farooqi, J. Stanojevic, S. Drishnan, Y. P. Zhang, R. Côté, E. E. Eyler, and P. L. Gould, “Local blockade of Rydberg excitation in an ultracold gas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 063001 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• T. Vogt, M. Viteau, J. Zhao, A. Chotia, D. Comparat, and P. Pillet, “Dipole blockade at Förster resonances in high-resolution laser excitation of Rydberg states of cesium atoms,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 083003 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Phys. Scr.

• T. T. Grove, V. Sanchez-Villicana, B. C. Duncan, S. Maleki, and P. L. Gould, “Two-photon two-color diode laser spectroscopy of the Rb 5D5/2 state,” Phys. Scr. 52, 271–276 (1995). [CrossRef]

Rev. Mod. Phys.

• M. Saffman, T. G. Walker, and K. Mølmer, “Quantum information with Rydberg atoms,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 2313–2363 (2010). [CrossRef]

Click here to see a list of articles that cite this paper

Related Journal Articles

• Synchronization of chaotic mode hopping (OL)
• Experimental demonstration of suppression of low-frequency fluctuations and stabilization of an external-cavity laser diode (OL)
• Amplitude-modulation-free optoelectronic frequency control of laser diodes (OL)
• Surface profilometry with laser-diode optical feedback interferometer outside optical benches (AO)
• Trapping of three-level atoms interacting with a single-mode cavity field (JOSAA)

Related Conference Papers

• MEMs-tunable vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers
• Error free 2.5 Gb/s transmission over 125 km conventional fiber of a directly modulated widely tunable vertical cavity emitting laser
• High power ASE-free tunable laser using a Sagnac ring interferometer within the external cavity
• Highly reliable 1.3 μm AlGaInAs FP lasers with low power penalty under uncooled 10Gbps operation at 85°C
• Multilevel quantum logic in Fourier conjugate bases
• Multilevel quantum logic in Fourier conjugate bases