GHz Rabi flopping to Rydberg states in hot atomic vapor cells
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Updated: May 25, 2026

Experimental Methods for Trapping Ions Using Microfabricated Surface Ion Traps
Published on: August 17, 2017
B Huber1, T Baluktsian, M Schlagmüller
15. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany.
Abstract:
We report on the observation of Rabi oscillations to a Rydberg state on a time scale below 1 ns in thermal rubidium vapor. We use a bandwidth-limited pulsed excitation and observe up to 6 full Rabi cycles within a pulse duration of ∼4 ns. We find good agreement between the experiment and numerical simulations based on a surprisingly simple model. This result shows that fully coherent dynamics with Rydberg states can be achieved even in thermal atomic vapor, thus suggesting small vapor cells as a platform for room-temperature quantum devices. Furthermore, the result implies that previous coherent dynamics in single-atom Rydberg gates can be accelerated by 3 orders of magnitude.
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