Rapid non-adiabatic loading in an optical lattice

We present a scheme for non-adiabatically loading a Bose-Einstein condensate into the ground state of a one dimensional optical lattice within a few tens of microseconds typically, i.e. in less than half the Talbot period. This technique of coherent control is based on sequences of pulsed perturbations and experimental results demonstrate its feasibility and effectiveness. As the loading process is much shorter than the traditional adiabatic loading timescale, this method may find many applications.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Mode competition in superradiant scattering of matter waves

Superradiant Rayleigh scattering in a Bose gas released from an optical lattice is analyzed with incident light pumping at the Bragg angle for resonant light diffraction. We show competition between superradiance scattering into the Bragg mode and into end-fire modes clearly leads to suppression of the latter at even relatively low lattice depths. A quantum light-matter interaction model is proposed for qualitatively explaining this result.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted by PR

Electric-field induced dipole blockade with Rydberg atoms

High resolution laser Stark excitation of np (60 < n < 85) Rydberg states of ultra-cold cesium atoms shows an efficient blockade of the excitation attributed to long-range dipole-dipole interaction. The dipole blockade effect is observed as a quenching of the Rydberg excitation depending on the value of the dipole moment induced by the external electric field. Effects of eventual ions which could match the dipole blockade effect are discussed in detail but are ruled out for our experimental conditions. Analytic and Monte-Carlo simulations of the excitation of an ensemble of interacting Rydberg atoms agree with the experiments indicates a major role of the nearest neighboring Rydberg atom.Comment: 4 page

Dipole blockade through Rydberg Forster resonance energy transfer

High resolution laser excitation of np Rydberg states of cesium atoms shows a dipole blockade at F\"{o}rster resonances corresponding to the resonant dipole-dipole energy transfer of the np + np &#8594; ns + (n + 1)s reaction. The dipole-dipole interaction can be tuned on and off by the Stark effect, and such a process observed for relatively low n (25 &#8722; 41) is promising for quantum gate devices. Both Penning ionization and saturation in the laser excitation can limit the range of observation of the dipole blockadeComment: number of pages:

Ion Imaging via Long-Range Interaction with Rydberg Atoms

We demonstrate imaging of ions in an atomic gas with ion-Rydberg atom interaction induced absorption. This is made possible by utilizing a multi-photon electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) scheme and the extremely large electric polarizability of a Rydberg state with high orbital angular momentum. We process the acquired images to obtain the distribution of ion clouds and to spectroscopically investigate the effect of the ions on the EIT resonance. Furthermore, we show that our method can be employed to image the dynamics of ions in a time resolved way. As an example, we map out the avalanche ionization of a gas of Rydberg atoms. The minimal disruption and the flexibility offered by this imaging technique make it ideally suited for the investigation of cold hybrid ion-atom systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Fast Single-shot Imaging of Individual Ions via Homodyne Detection of Rydberg-Blockade-Induced Absorption

We introduce well-separated $^{87}$Rb$^+$ ions into an atomic ensemble by microwave ionization of Rydberg excitations and realize single-shot imaging of the individual ions with an exposure time of 1 $\mu$s. This imaging sensitivity is reached by using homodyne detection of ion-Rydberg-atom interaction induced absorption. We obtain an ion detection fidelity of (80 $\pm$ 5)\% from analyzing the absorption spots in acquired single-shot images. These \textit{in situ} images provide a direct visualization of the ion-Rydberg interaction blockade and reveal clear spatial correlations between Rydberg excitations. The capability of imaging individual ions in a single shot is of interest for investigating collisional dynamics in hybrid ion-atom systems and for exploring ions as a probe for measurements of quantum gases.Comment: 11 pages, 5 + 6 figure

Efficient microwave-to-optical conversion using Rydberg atoms

We demonstrate microwave-to-optical conversion using six-wave mixing in $^{87}$Rb 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%