Many-body dipole-dipole interactions between excited Rb atoms probed by wave packets and parametric four-wave mixing

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Oct 5;99(14):143201. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.143201. Epub 2007 Oct 5.

Abstract

Dipole-dipole interactions between excited Rb atoms at long range (approximately 300a0-2150a0) have been observed with molecular wave packets and a coherent nonlinear optical process. Fourier analysis of the parametric four-wave mixing (PFWM) signal wave intensity produced in femtosecond pump-probe experiments demonstrates the appearance of sidebands associated with the Rb 7s-5d(5/2) quantum beating frequency of approximately 18.3 THz. Calculations show that the observed sideband splittings and Fourier domain profiles result from multiple atom, dipole-dipole interactions, and ensembles comprising five or fewer Rb (7s, 6p) atoms account for virtually all of the data.