Project Details
Projekt
Rydberg atoms inside hollow-core photonic crystal fibre
Subject Area
Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
Term
from 2016 to 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 316185019
Rydberg atoms have extreme properties. In particular the large polarizabilities lead to extremely strong interactions, which can be exploited to produce optical non-linearities. In this project we will study hot atoms inside hollow core fibres and various interaction mechanisms between highly excited Rydberg atoms. The combination of well collimated intense light fields, large atomic densities and optical depths, simple geometries and the integration of metallic structures is ideally suited to employ optical bistabilities for narrowband THz generation and detection. In the bistable phase emerge large fields in the microwave or THz domain. We expect that with a suitable geometry we can produce mW powers above one THz, which is usually not available with commercial cw-systems. In a next step we want to use the steep spectroscopic feature as a sensitive probe for THz radiation. The collective response of the ensemble will lead to a very sensitive THz Power-meter. Finally we will study the effect of the van-der-Waals interaction and how this can be exploited, in a similar manner as it is done with ultracold gases, for nonlinear optics.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 1929:
Giant Interactions in Rydberg Systems (GiRyd)
