Jay Trombley
Research Mentor(s): Alex Burgers
Mentor Department: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department
Authors:
Session: Session 7 (4:00pm – 4: 50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 36
Abstract
Rydberg atoms are atoms with a principal quantum number much greater than 1, where the principal quantum number indicates the discrete energy level, or excited state, of the outer shell of electrons of an atom. With a large valence electron separation from the nucleus, Rydberg atoms prove attractive in many applications including quantum sensing and quantum computation due to their sensitivity to electromagnetic fields. To begin the groundwork for observation of the Rydberg states, we sought to first partially deplete the number of ground state atoms by transition to an initial excited state, and obtain a favorable corresponding saturation spectroscopy signal. While a large portion of the research into Rydberg cesium atoms has involved the 852nm transition, we assembled an optical setup for observation of both the 852nm and 894nm transitions. We approached this setup by utilizing a counter-propagating pump-probe design through a glass cesium vapor cell to observe the transitions, and implemented Pound Drever Hall locking to be able to lock the frequency of the laser to the respective transitions. The development of our setup is the first step in allowing observation of Rydberg cesium atoms from both transitions.
