Spontaneous decay induced quantum dynamics in Rydberg blockaded Λ-type atoms

Abstract

Strongly Rydberg-blockaded two-level atoms form a Rydberg superatom, which is excited only to a collective symmetrical Dicke state. However, emerging often in the alkali-earth atoms, the spontaneous decay from the Rydberg state to an additional pooling state renders the ensemble no longer a closed superatom. Herein we present a computationally-efficient model to characterize the interaction between a fully Rydberg-blockaded ensemble of $N$ $Λ$-type three-level atoms and a strong probe light field in a coherent state. The model enables us to achieve a decomposition of the coupled dynamics in the strong field limit, which significantly reduces the complexity of computing the $N$-body system evolution and paves a way for practical analysis in experiments. A quasi-steady-state power spectrum with multiple sidebands is found in the scattered field. The relative heights of the sidebands show a time dependence determined by the atomic relaxation, which illuminates potential applications of using the system in information transfer of quantum networks. With negligible dissipative flipping to the unsymmetrical states, the atomic relaxation time indicating a linearly increasing pooling state fraction is derived analytically as a function of the atom number.