- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Primary quantum thermometry of mm-wave blackbody radiation via induced state transfer in Rydberg states of cold atoms

Noah Schlossberger1,*, Andrew P. Rotunno1, Stephen P. Eckel2, Eric B. Norrgard2, Dixith Manchaiah3,4, Nikunjkumar Prajapati1, Alexandra B. Artusio-Glimpse1, Samuel Berweger1, Matthew T. Simons1 et al.

Dangka Shylla3,4, William J. Watterson3,4, Charles Patrick3,4, Adil Meraki3,4, Rajavardhan Talashila3,5, Amanda Younes6, David S. La Mantia2, and Christopher L. Holloway1

  • *Contact author: noah.schlossberger@nist.gov
PDF

Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012020 – Published 23 January, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L012020

Abstract

Rydberg states of alkali-metal atoms are highly sensitive to electromagnetic radiation in the GHz-to-THz regime because their transitions have large electric dipole moments. Consequently, environmental blackbody radiation (BBR) can couple Rydberg states together at µs timescales. Here, we track the BBR-induced transfer of a prepared Rydberg state to its neighbors and use the evolution of these state populations to characterize the BBR field at the relevant wavelengths, primarily at 130 GHz. We use selective field ionization readout of Rydberg states with principal quantum number n∼30 in Rb85 and substantiate our ionization signal with a theoretical model. With this detection method, we measure the associated blackbody-radiation-induced time dynamics of these states, reproduce the results with a simple semiclassical population transfer model, and demonstrate that this measurement is temperature sensitive with a statistical sensitivity to the fractional temperature uncertainty of 0.09 Hz−1/2, corresponding to 26 K Hz−1/2 at room temperature. This represents a calibration-free SI-traceable temperature measurement, for which we calculate a systematic fractional temperature uncertainty of 0.006, corresponding to 2 K at room temperature when used as a primary temperature standard.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (29)

  1. A. C. Carter, R. U. Datla, T. M. Jung, A. W. Smith, and J. A. Fedchak, Low-background temperature calibration of infrared blackbodies, Metrologia 43, S46 (2006).
  2. H. Fan, S. Kumar, J. Sedlacek, H. Kübler, S. Karimkashi, and J. P. Shaffer, Atom based RF electric field sensing, J. Phys. B: At., Mol. Opt. Phys. 48, 202001 (2015).
  3. J. A. Sedlacek, A. Schwettmann, H. Kübler, R. Löw, T. Pfau, and J. P. Shaffer, Microwave electrometry with Rydberg atoms in a vapour cell using bright atomic resonances, Nat. Phys. 8, 819 (2012).
  4. A. Artusio-Glimpse, M. T. Simons, N. Prajapati, and C. L. Holloway, Modern RF measurements with hot atoms: A technology review of Rydberg atom-based radio frequency field sensors, IEEE Microwave Mag. 23, 44 (2022).
  5. N. Schlossberger, Nikunjkumar Prajapati, S. Berweger, A. P. Rotunno, A. B. Artusio-Glimpse, M. T. Simons, A. A. Sheikh, E. B. Norrgard, S. P. Eckel, and C. L. Holloway, Rydberg states of alkali atoms in atomic vapour as Si-traceable field probes and communications receivers, Nat. Rev. Phys. 6, 606 (2024)
  6. T. F. Gallagher and W. E. Cooke, Interactions of blackbody radiation with atoms, Phys. Rev. Lett. 42, 835 (1979).
  7. J. W. Farley and W. H. Wing, Accurate calculation of dynamic Stark shifts and depopulation rates of Rydberg energy levels induced by blackbody radiation: Hydrogen, helium, and alkali-metal atoms, Phys. Rev. A 23, 2397 (1981).
  8. L. Hollberg and J. L. Hall, Measurement of the shift of Rydberg energy levels induced by blackbody radiation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 53, 230 (1984).
  9. V. D. Ovsiannikov, A. Derevianko, and K. Gibble, Rydberg spectroscopy in an optical lattice: Blackbody thermometry for atomic clocks, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 093003 (2011).
  10. A. D. Ludlow, T. Zelevinsky, G. K. Campbell, S. Blatt, M. M. Boyd, M. H. G. de Miranda, M. J. Martin, J. W. Thomsen, S. M. Foreman, J. Ye, T. M. Fortier, J. E. Stalnaker, S. A. Diddams, Y. Le Coq, Z. W. Barber, N. Poli, N. D. Lemke, K. M. Beck, and C. W. Oates, Sr lattice clock at 1×10−16 fractional uncertainty by remote optical evaluation with a Ca clock, Science 319, 1805 (2008).
  11. K. Beloy, N. Hinkley, N. B. Phillips, J. A. Sherman, M. Schioppo, J. Lehman, A. Feldman, L. M. Hanssen, C. W. Oates, and A. D. Ludlow, Atomic clock with 1×10−18 room-temperature blackbody stark uncertainty, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 260801 (2014).
  12. W. P. Spencer, A. G. Vaidyanathan, D. Kleppner, and T. W. Ducas, Photoionization by blackbody radiation, Phys. Rev. A 26, 1490 (1982).
  13. I. I. Beterov, D. B. Tretyakov, I. I. Ryabtsev, V. M. Entin, A. Ekers, and N. N. Bezuglov, Ionization of Rydberg atoms by blackbody radiation, New J. Phys. 11, 013052 (2009).
  14. H. Figger, G. Leuchs, R. Straubinger, and H. Walther, A photon detector for submillimetre wavelengths using Rydberg atoms, Opt. Commun. 33, 37 (1980).
  15. W. P. Spencer, A. G. Vaidyanathan, D. Kleppner, and T. W. Ducas, Temperature dependence of blackbody-radiation-induced transfer among highly excited states of sodium, Phys. Rev. A 25, 380 (1982).
  16. E. J. Galvez, J. R. Lewis, B. Chaudhuri, J. J. Rasweiler, H. Latvakoski, F. De Zela, E. Massoni, and H. Castillo, Multistep transitions between Rydberg states of Na induced by blackbody radiation, Phys. Rev. A 51, 4010 (1995).
  17. E. B. Norrgard, S. P. Eckel, C. L. Holloway, and E. L. Shirley, Quantum blackbody thermometry, New J. Phys. 23, 033037 (2021).
  18. D. S. La Mantia, M. Lei, N. Prajapati, N. Schlossberger, M. T. Simons, C. L. Holloway, J. Scherschligt, S. P. Eckel, and E. B. Norrgard, Compact blackbody radiation atomic sensor: Measuring temperature using optically excited atoms in vapor cells, arXiv:2411.13426.
  19. T. Cantat-Moltrecht, R. Cortiñas, B. Ravon, P. Méhaignerie, S. Haroche, J. M. Raimond, M. Favier, M. Brune, and C. Sayrin, Long-lived circular Rydberg states of laser-cooled rubidium atoms in a cryostat, Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 022032(R) (2020).
  20. M. Archimi, M. Ceccanti, M. Distefano, L. Di Virgilio, R. Franco, A. Greco, C. Simonelli, E. Arimondo, D. Ciampini, and O. Morsch, Measurements of blackbody-radiation-induced transition rates between high-lying S, P, and D Rydberg levels, Phys. Rev. A 105, 063104 (2022).
  21. T. F. Gallagher, Rydberg Atoms, Cambridge Monographs on Atomic, Molecular and Chemical Physics (Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, 1994).
  22. V. C. Gregoric, J. J. Bennett, B. R. Gualtieri, A. Kannad, Z. C. Liu, Z. A. Rowley, T. J. Carroll, and M. W. Noel, Improving the state selectivity of field ionization with quantum control, Phys. Rev. A 98, 063404 (2018).
  23. W. E. Cooke and T. F. Gallagher, Dependence of Rydberg-state field-ionization thresholds on |ml|, Phys. Rev. A 17, 1226 (1978).
  24. N. Šibalić, J. D. Pritchard, C. S. Adams, and K. J. Weatherill, ARC: An open-source library for calculating properties of alkali Rydberg atoms, Comput. Phys. Commun. 220, 319 (2017).
  25. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L012020 for atom trap characterization, ionization methods, and detailed uncertainty analysis, which includes Refs. [26, 27, 28].
  26. S. Pradhan and B. N. Jagatap, Measurement of temperature of laser cooled atoms by one-dimensional expansion in a magneto-optical trap, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 013101 (2008).
  27. U. Volz and H. Schmoranzer, Precision lifetime measurements on alkali atoms and on helium by beam–gas–laser spectroscopy, Phys. Scr. T65, 48 (1996).
  28. D. Tong, S. M. Farooqi, J. Stanojevic, S. Krishnan, Y. P. Zhang, R. Côté, E. E. Eyler, and P. L. Gould, Local blockade of Rydberg excitation in an ultracold gas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 063001 (2004).
  29. doi:10.18434/mds2-3499.

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012020– Published 23 January, 2025
  • Received 16 October 2024
  • Accepted 7 December 2024
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

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.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation