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Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics

College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University

2008

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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Rabi Oscillations Between Ground And Rydberg States With Dipole-Dipole Atomic Interactions, Todd A. Johnson, E. Urban, T. Henage, L. Isenhower, D. D. Yavuz, T. G. Walker, M Saffman Mar 2008

Rabi Oscillations Between Ground And Rydberg States With Dipole-Dipole Atomic Interactions, Todd A. Johnson, E. Urban, T. Henage, L. Isenhower, D. D. Yavuz, T. G. Walker, M Saffman

Physics Faculty Publications

We demonstrate Rabi oscillations of small numbers of 87Rb atoms between ground and Rydberg states with n≤43. Coherent population oscillations are observed for single atoms, while the presence of two or more atoms decoheres the oscillations. We show that these observations are consistent with van der Waals interactions of Rydberg atoms.