title: Atomic Fock state preparation using Rydberg blockade.
abstract: We use coherent excitation of 3-16 atom ensembles to demonstrate collective Rabi flopping mediated by Rydberg blockade. Using calibrated atom number measurements, we quantitatively confirm the expected √N Rabi frequency enhancement to within 4%. The resulting atom number distributions are consistent with an essentially perfect blockade. We then use collective Rabi π pulses to produce N=1, 2 atom number Fock states with fidelities of 62% and 48%, respectively. The N=2 Fock state shows the collective Rabi frequency enhancement without corruption from atom number fluctuations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ebert
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Xianli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saffman
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Thad G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Walker