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Observation of Rabi dynamics with a short-wavelength free-electron laser

Nandi, Saikat LU ; Olofsson, Edvin LU ; Bertolino, Mattias LU orcid ; Carlström, Stefanos LU ; Zapata, Felipe LU ; Busto, David LU orcid ; Callegari, Carlo ; Di Fraia, Michele ; Eng-Johnsson, Per LU orcid and Feifel, Raimund , et al. (2022) In Nature 608(7923). p.488-493
Abstract

Rabi oscillations are periodic modulations of populations in two-level systems interacting with a time-varying field 1. They are ubiquitous in physics with applications in different areas such as photonics 2, nano-electronics 3, electron microscopy 4 and quantum information 5. While the theory developed by Rabi was intended for fermions in gyrating magnetic fields, Autler and Townes realized that it could also be used to describe coherent light-matter interactions within the rotating-wave approximation 6. Although intense nanometre-wavelength light sources have been available for more than a decade 7-9, Rabi dynamics at such short wavelengths has not been directly observed. Here we show that femtosecond extreme-ultraviolet pulses from... (More)

Rabi oscillations are periodic modulations of populations in two-level systems interacting with a time-varying field 1. They are ubiquitous in physics with applications in different areas such as photonics 2, nano-electronics 3, electron microscopy 4 and quantum information 5. While the theory developed by Rabi was intended for fermions in gyrating magnetic fields, Autler and Townes realized that it could also be used to describe coherent light-matter interactions within the rotating-wave approximation 6. Although intense nanometre-wavelength light sources have been available for more than a decade 7-9, Rabi dynamics at such short wavelengths has not been directly observed. Here we show that femtosecond extreme-ultraviolet pulses from a seeded free-electron laser 10 can drive Rabi dynamics between the ground state and an excited state in helium atoms. The measured photoelectron signal reveals an Autler-Townes doublet and an avoided crossing, phenomena that are both fundamental to coherent atom-field interactions 11. Using an analytical model derived from perturbation theory on top of the Rabi model, we find that the ultrafast build-up of the doublet structure carries the signature of a quantum interference effect between resonant and non-resonant photoionization pathways. Given the recent availability of intense attosecond 12 and few-femtosecond 13 extreme-ultraviolet pulses, our results unfold opportunities to carry out ultrafast manipulation of coherent processes at short wavelengths using free-electron lasers.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature
volume
608
issue
7923
pages
6 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:35978126
  • scopus:85135995763
ISSN
0028-0836
DOI
10.1038/s41586-022-04948-y
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
© 2022. The Author(s).
id
fddf3612-c4e7-4a66-9994-059c665aa172
date added to LUP
2022-08-25 20:29:17
date last changed
2024-04-18 14:05:39
@article{fddf3612-c4e7-4a66-9994-059c665aa172,
  abstract     = {{<p>Rabi oscillations are periodic modulations of populations in two-level systems interacting with a time-varying field 1. They are ubiquitous in physics with applications in different areas such as photonics 2, nano-electronics 3, electron microscopy 4 and quantum information 5. While the theory developed by Rabi was intended for fermions in gyrating magnetic fields, Autler and Townes realized that it could also be used to describe coherent light-matter interactions within the rotating-wave approximation  6. Although intense nanometre-wavelength light sources have been available for more than a decade 7-9, Rabi dynamics at such short wavelengths has not been directly observed. Here we show that femtosecond extreme-ultraviolet pulses from a seeded free-electron laser 10 can drive Rabi dynamics between the ground state and an excited state in helium atoms. The measured photoelectron signal reveals an Autler-Townes doublet and an avoided crossing, phenomena that are both fundamental to coherent atom-field interactions 11. Using an analytical model derived from perturbation theory on top of the Rabi model, we find that the ultrafast build-up of the doublet structure carries the signature of a quantum interference effect between resonant and non-resonant photoionization pathways. Given the recent availability of intense attosecond 12 and few-femtosecond 13 extreme-ultraviolet pulses, our results unfold opportunities to carry out ultrafast manipulation of coherent processes at short wavelengths using free-electron lasers. </p>}},
  author       = {{Nandi, Saikat and Olofsson, Edvin and Bertolino, Mattias and Carlström, Stefanos and Zapata, Felipe and Busto, David and Callegari, Carlo and Di Fraia, Michele and Eng-Johnsson, Per and Feifel, Raimund and Gallician, Guillaume and Gisselbrecht, Mathieu and Maclot, Sylvain and Neoričić, Lana and Peschel, Jasper and Plekan, Oksana and Prince, Kevin C and Squibb, Richard J and Zhong, Shiyang and Demekhin, Philipp V and Meyer, Michael and Miron, Catalin and Badano, Laura and Danailov, Miltcho B and Giannessi, Luca and Manfredda, Michele and Sottocorona, Filippo and Zangrando, Marco and Dahlström, Jan Marcus}},
  issn         = {{0028-0836}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{7923}},
  pages        = {{488--493}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature}},
  title        = {{Observation of Rabi dynamics with a short-wavelength free-electron laser}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04948-y}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41586-022-04948-y}},
  volume       = {{608}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}