Microwave assisted optical waveguide in Rydberg atoms

Abstract

We theoretically demonstrate an efficient scheme to build a microwave (MW) assisted optical waveguide in an inhomogeneously broadened vapor medium that is made of active 87 Rb atoms and inactive buffer gas atoms. We exploit the sensitive behaviour of MW field coupled between highly excited Rydberg states to create distinctly responsive and tunable atomic waveguide. The buffer gas induced collision further manipulates the features of the waveguide by widening the spatial transparency window and enhancing the contrast of the refractive index. We numerically solve Maxwell's equations to demonstrate diffractionless propagation of 5 micrometer narrow paraxial light beams of arbitrary mode to several Rayleigh lengths. The presence of the buffer gas significantly enhances output intensity of the diffraction controlled light beam from 10 percent to 54 percent. This efficient diffraction elimination technique has important applications in high-resolution imaging and high-density optical communication.