Rydberg polariton dynamics in quasi one dimensional geometries

新型里德堡原子界面和里德堡量子光学是“里德堡系统中的巨人相互作用”(GiRyd)优先计划的两个重点领域。该项目建立了一种基于空芯光纤的新型高效原子-光界面，并利用其独特的性质研究了强光-原子关联在一维系统中的传播和演化。该项目的第一部分集中在将激光冷却的原子样品控制加载到合适的空芯光纤中，以及通过电磁诱导透明(EIT)产生里德伯格极化电子。在此，我们将特别关注原子系统在受控时空演化过程中极化子场性质的表征。该项目的第二部分致力于研究这些极化子的传播和散射动力学。这应该会揭示与强耦合光原子系统中纠缠和量子信息的传播有关的基本问题，并允许产生奇异的非经典光子态。通过调节相互作用极化子的数目，即非经典光态中的光子数目，我们还计划研究从单粒子到连续变量量子信息的跃迁，并将这两种极限情况联系起来。这些研究将为利用相互作用的光子作为量子模拟的平台奠定基础。

Novel Rydberg atom interfaces and Rydberg quantum optics are two of the focus areas of the "Giant Interactions in Rydberg Systems" (GiRyd) priority program. This project establishes a new highly efficient atom-light interface based on hollow-core optical fibers and exploits its unique properties to study the propagation and evolution of strong light-atom correlations in a one-dimensional system. The first part of the project is focused around the controlled loading of a laser cooled, atomic sample into a suitable hollow-core fiber and the generation of Rydberg polaritons by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Here, special attention will be paid to the characterization of the polariton field properties during a controlled spatio-temporal evolution of the atomic system. The second part of the project is dedicated to the investigation of the propagation and scattering dynamics of these polaritons. This should shed light onto fundamental issues connected to the propagation of entanglement and quantum information in strongly coupled light atom systems and allow for the generation of exotic non-classical photonic states. By tuning the number of interacting polaritons, i.e. the number of photons in the non-classical light states, we in addition plan to investigate the transition from single particle to continuous variable quantum information and link the two limiting cases. These investigations will, amongst others, build the basis for exploiting interacting photons as a platform for quantum simulation.