Evidence for Strong van der Waals Type Rydberg-Rydberg Interaction in a Thermal Vapor

T. Baluktsian, B. Huber, R. Löw, T. Pfau
2013 Physical Review Letters  
We present evidence for Rydberg-Rydberg interaction in a gas of rubidium atoms above room temperature. Rabi oscillations on the nanosecond timescale to different Rydberg states are investigated in a vapor cell experiment. Analyzing the atomic time evolution and comparing to a dephasing model we find a scaling with the Rydberg quantum number n that is consistent with van der Waals interaction. Our results show that the interaction strength can be larger than the kinetic energy scale (Doppler
more » ... h) which is the requirement for realization of thermal quantum devices in the GHz regime.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.110.123001 pmid:25166800 fatcat:fkyaxgb7vbgmzgdhv6ezlapgwa