Coherent population transfer among Rydberg states by subpicosecond, half-cycle pulses

Transitions driven by a missing frequency

We demonstrate an intricate combination of strong and weak interactions of a broadband half-cycle pulse with Rydberg atoms. A transition, which is resonant with a frequency that was taken out of the frequency spectrum, can be enhanced. In the experiment, the broadband ultrashort terahertz half-cycle pulse propagates through water vapor, which absorbs on discrete lines in the spectrum, thus removing frequencies from the spectrum. The resulting pulse interacts with a rubidium Rydberg atom, which has a resonant transition with one of the missing frequencies. Under certain conditions, the transition probability is enhanced although the associated frequency was missing in the spectrum.

Quantum phase retrieval of a Rydberg wave packet using a half-cycle pulse

A terahertz half-cycle pulse was used to retrieve information stored as quantum phase in an N-state Rydberg atom data register. The register was prepared as a wave packet with one state phase reversed from the others (the "marked bit"). A half-cycle pulse then drove a significant portion of the electron probability into the flipped state via multimode interference.

Sophisticated quantum search without entanglement

Grover's quantum search algorithm has recently been implemented without entanglement, by replacing multiple particles with a single particle having exponentially many states. We recall that all physical resources must be accounted for to quantify algorithm complexity, and that this scheme typically incurs exponential costs in some other resource(s). In particular, we demonstrate that a recent experimental realization requires exponentially increasing precision. There is, however, a quantum algorithm which searches a "sophisticated" database (not unlike a Web search engine) with a single query, but which we show does not require entanglement even for multiparticle implementations.

Information storage and retrieval through quantum phase

Information was stored as quantum phase in an N-state Rydberg atom data register. One or more flipped states stored in an eight-state atomic wave packet could be retrieved in a single operation, in agreement with a recent proposal by Grover.