Long-lived giant circular Rydberg atoms at room temperature

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Pultinevicius, Einius, Götzelmann, Aaron, Thielemann, Fabian, Hölzl, Christian, Meinert, Florian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Pultinevicius, Einius
Götzelmann, Aaron
Thielemann, Fabian
Hölzl, Christian
Meinert, Florian
author_facet Pultinevicius, Einius
Götzelmann, Aaron
Thielemann, Fabian
Hölzl, Christian
Meinert, Florian
contents Stability achieved by large angular momentum is ubiquitous in nature, with examples ranging from classical mechanics, over optics and chemistry, to nuclear physics. In atoms, angular momentum can protect excited electronic orbitals from decay due to selection rules. This manifests spectacularly in highly excited Rydberg states. Low angular momentum Rydberg states are at the heart of recent breakthroughs in quantum computing, simulation and sensing with neutral atoms. For these applications the lifetime of the Rydberg levels sets fundamental limits for gate fidelities, coherence times, or spectroscopic precision. The quest for longer Rydberg state lifetimes has motivated the generation, coherent control and trapping of circular Rydberg atoms, which are characterized by the maximally allowed electron orbital momentum and were key to Nobel prize-winning experiments with single atoms and photons. Here, we report the observation of individually trapped circular Rydberg atoms with lifetimes of more than 10 milliseconds, two orders of magnitude longer-lived than the established low angular momentum orbitals. This is achieved via Purcell suppression of blackbody modes at room temperature. We coherently control individual circular Rydberg levels at so far elusive principal quantum numbers of up to $n=103$, and observe tweezer trapping of the Rydberg atoms on the few hundred millisecond scale. Our results pave the way for quantum information processing and sensing utilizing the combination of extreme lifetimes and giant Rydberg blockade.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_27471
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Long-lived giant circular Rydberg atoms at room temperature
Pultinevicius, Einius
Götzelmann, Aaron
Thielemann, Fabian
Hölzl, Christian
Meinert, Florian
Atomic Physics
Quantum Gases
Quantum Physics
Stability achieved by large angular momentum is ubiquitous in nature, with examples ranging from classical mechanics, over optics and chemistry, to nuclear physics. In atoms, angular momentum can protect excited electronic orbitals from decay due to selection rules. This manifests spectacularly in highly excited Rydberg states. Low angular momentum Rydberg states are at the heart of recent breakthroughs in quantum computing, simulation and sensing with neutral atoms. For these applications the lifetime of the Rydberg levels sets fundamental limits for gate fidelities, coherence times, or spectroscopic precision. The quest for longer Rydberg state lifetimes has motivated the generation, coherent control and trapping of circular Rydberg atoms, which are characterized by the maximally allowed electron orbital momentum and were key to Nobel prize-winning experiments with single atoms and photons. Here, we report the observation of individually trapped circular Rydberg atoms with lifetimes of more than 10 milliseconds, two orders of magnitude longer-lived than the established low angular momentum orbitals. This is achieved via Purcell suppression of blackbody modes at room temperature. We coherently control individual circular Rydberg levels at so far elusive principal quantum numbers of up to $n=103$, and observe tweezer trapping of the Rydberg atoms on the few hundred millisecond scale. Our results pave the way for quantum information processing and sensing utilizing the combination of extreme lifetimes and giant Rydberg blockade.
title Long-lived giant circular Rydberg atoms at room temperature
topic Atomic Physics
Quantum Gases
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.27471