Millisecond-Lived Circular Rydberg Atoms in a Room-Temperature Experiment

Circular Rydberg states are excellent tools for quantum technologies, with large mutual interactions and long lifetimes in the tens of milliseconds range, 2 orders of magnitude larger than those of laser-accessible Rydberg states. However, such lifetimes are observed only at zero temperature. At room temperature, blackbody-radiation-induced transfers cancel this essential asset of circular states, which have thus been used mostly so far in specific, complex cryogenic experiments. We demonstrate here, on a laser-cooled atomic sample, a circular state lifetime of more than 1 millisecond at room temperature for a principal quantum number 60. A simple plane-parallel capacitor efficiently inhibits the blackbody-radiation-induced transfers. One of the capacitor electrodes is fully transparent and provides large optical access to the atoms. This result paves the way to a wide range of quantum metrology and quantum simulation room-temperature experiments with long-lived, trapped circular Rydberg atoms in inhibition capacitors with full optical access.

Automated summary

Circular Rydberg states have large mutual interactions and long lifetimes, but these lifetimes are cancelled by blackbody radiation-induced transfers at room temperature. In this study, we demonstrate a room-temperature lifetime of over 1 millisecond for a circular state with a principal quantum number of 60 in a laser-cooled atomic sample. This is achieved by using a simple plane-parallel capacitor that efficiently inhibits the blackbody radiation-induced transfers and provides large optical access to the atoms.