ELECTROMAGNETICALLY INDUCED TRANSPARENCY AND MICROWAVE-TO-OPTICAL CONVERSION USING RYDBERG ATOMS

Abstract

This thesis describes our experimental investigations of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and microwave-to-optical conversion with Rydberg atoms. To this end, we build a new apparatus that can produce ultracold atomic samples including the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). In the study of Rydberg EIT, we firstly explore the lensing effect experienced by the probe field in a non-interacting gas that a red-detuned probe light is strongly focused whereas a blue-detuned one is de-focused. This is due to the tightly focused coupling beam. Secondly, we perform spectroscopic measurements in an interacting EIT medium, and observe a significant interaction induced spectral shift and dephasing. In the study of microwave-to-optical conversion with Rydberg atoms, we employ the strong coupling of microwaves to Rydberg transitions and implement the six-wave mixing. The conversion is broadband and the generated light shows a very narrow linewidth, which is not limited by Rydberg interactions.