Ramsey interferometry of Rydberg ensembles inside microwave cavities

Abstract

We study ensembles of Rydberg atoms in a confined electromagnetic environment such as provided by a microwave cavity. The competition between standard free space Ising type and cavity-mediated interactions leads to the emergence of different regimes where the particle-particle couplings range from the typical van der Waals $r^{-6}$ behavior to $r^{-3}$ and to $r$-independence. We apply a Ramsey spectroscopic technique to map the two-body interactions into a characteristic signal such as intensity and contrast decay curves. As opposed to previous treatments requiring high-densities for considerable contrast and phase decay, the cavity scenario can exhibit similar behavior at much lower densities.