Light propagation in a three-dimensional Rydberg gas with a nonlocal optical response

• Published in: Optics express Vol. 29; no. 10; pp. 15300 - 15308
• Main Author: Zhou, Yan-Li
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 10-05-2021
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/OE.425208

We theoretically investigate the linear susceptibility and propagation of light in a three-dimensional (3-D) Rydberg gas under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. Rydberg atoms with two relevant S states are coupled via exchange interactions. When the gas is initially prepared in an entangled spin-wave state, this coupling induces a strong, nonlocal susceptibility whereby the photon field at one point of the medium acts as a source at a distant position. The nonlocal propagation occurs not only in the propagation direction but also in the paraxial direction. We discuss the absorption features and numerically simulate the 3-D propagation of probe laser light. Combined with the long-range exchange interaction, we show that the 3-D Rydberg gas is an ideal medium for studying nonlocal wave phenomena, in which the strength, range, and sign of the nonlocal interaction kernel can be widely tuned.