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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Effects of higher-order Casimir-Polder interactions on Rydberg atom spectroscopy

B. Dutta, J. C. de Aquino Carvalho, G. Garcia-Arellano, P. Pedri, and A. Laliotis*

C. Boldt, J. Kaushal, and S. Scheel†

  • Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, F-93430 Villetaneuse, France and CNRS, UMR 7538, LPL, 99 Avenue J.-B. Clément, F-93430 Villetaneuse, France

  • Institute for Physics, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Straße 23-24, D-18059 Rostock, Germany

  • *laliotis@univ-paris13.fr
  • †stefan.scheel@uni-rostock.de
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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L022035 – Published 9 May, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L022035

Abstract

In the extreme near field, when the spatial extension of the atomic wavefunction is no longer negligible compared to the atom-surface distance, the dipole approximation is no longer sufficient to describe Casimir-Polder interactions. Here we calculate the higher-order, quadrupole and octupole, contributions to Casimir-Polder energy shifts of Rydberg atoms close to a dielectric surface. We subsequently investigate the effects of these higher-order terms in thin-cell and selective reflection spectroscopy. Beyond its fundamental interest, this regime of extremely small atom surface separations is relevant for quantum technology applications with Rydberg or surface-bound atoms interfacing with photonic platforms.

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L022035– Published 9 May, 2024
  • Received 15 January 2024
  • Accepted 12 March 2024
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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