A Rydberg atom array coupled to a high-cooperativity optical cavity

Abstract

Integrating Rydberg-state control of atom-atom interactions with cavity control of atom-light interactions enables the combination of local entangling operations with photon-mediated long-range coupling, measurement, and communication. Such integration is challenging because electric fields generated by charges on cavity optics and by cavity-stabilizing actuators may disturb Rydberg-state coherence. Here, we couple a Rydberg tweezer array to a high-cooperativity optical cavity, suppressing the electric fields produced by cavity length actuation so that the residual field variation of about $3~\mathrm{mV/cm}$ rms does not limit Rydberg coherence. We demonstrate two capabilities that neither system provides alone. First, we use Purcell-enhanced fluorescence to read out atoms directly in the ground-Rydberg basis within $7.5~μ\mathrm{s}$, well within the Rydberg-state lifetime, with ground- and Rydberg-state detection infidelities of $3\%$ and $5\%$, respectively, and with low atom loss. Second, we use Rydberg-Rydberg interactions to control collective light-atom scattering into the cavity mode. Specifically, we drive blockaded Rabi oscillations between a state with two ground-state atoms, which scatter collectively with a superradiant or subradiant rate controlled by the atomic positions, and an entangled state with a single Rydberg excitation, which scatters like a single atom. These capabilities open routes toward networked Rydberg processors, mid-circuit measurements in analog quantum simulators, and many-body quantum optics with entangled emitters coupled collectively to light.