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Spectral Line Width Broadening from Pair Fluctuation in a Frozen Rydberg Gas

Authors :
Sun, B.
Robicheaux, F.
Source :
Phys. Rev. A 78, 040701 (2008)
Publication Year :
2009

Abstract

Spectral line width broadening in Rydberg gases, a phenomenon previously attributed to the many-body effect, was observed experimentally almost a decade ago. The observed line width was typically 80-100 times larger than the average interaction strength predicted from a binary interaction. The interpretation of such a phenomenon is usually based on the so-called diffusion model, where the line width broadening mostly originates from the diffusion of excitations. In this paper, we present a model calculation to show that diffusion is not the main mechanism to the line width broadening. We find that the rare pair fluctuation at small separation is the dominant factor contributing to this broadening. Our results give a width of about 20-30 times larger than the average interaction strength. More importantly, by turning off the diffusion process, we do not observe order of magnitude change in the spectral line width.

Details

Database :
arXiv
Journal :
Phys. Rev. A 78, 040701 (2008)
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsarx.0910.1771
Document Type :
Working Paper
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.78.040701