Study of Rydberg blockade mediated optical non-linearity in thermal vapor using optical heterodyne detection technique

Abstract: We demonstrate the phenomenon of blockade in two-photon excitations to the Rydberg state in thermal vapor. A technique based on optical heterodyne is used to measure the dispersion of a probe beam far off resonant to the D2 line of rubidium in the presence of a strong laser beam that couples to the Rydberg state via two-photon resonance. Density dependent suppression of the dispersion peak is observed while coupling to the Rydberg state with principal quantum number, n = 60. The experimental observation is explained using the phenomenon of Rydberg blockade. The blockade radius is measured to be about 2.2 {\mu}m which is consistent with the scaling due to the Doppler width of 2-photon resonance in thermal vapor. Our result promises the realization of single photon source and strong single photon non-linearity based on Rydberg blockade in thermal vapor.