Abstract

Sufficient control over the excitation of the Rydberg atom as a quantum memory is crucial for the fast and deterministic preparation and manipulation of the quantum information. Considering the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam spatial features, localized excitation of a four-level atom to a highly excited Rydberg state is presented. The position-dependent AC-Stark shift of the first and Rydberg state in the effective quadrupole two-level description of a far-detuned three-photon Rydberg excitation results in a steep trapping potential for Rydberg state. The transfer of optical orbital angular momentum from LG beam to the Rydberg state via quadrupole transition in the last Rydberg excitation process offers a long-lived and controllable qudit quantum memory. The effective quadrupole Rabi frequency is presented as a function of ratio of the first to Rydberg excitation laser beam waist and the center of mass position inside the trap. It depicts high accuracy of detecting Rydberg atom at the center of the trap, which can pave the way for implementation of high-fidelity qudit gate.

Keywords: Rydberg excitation, dipole-quadrupole trap, Laguerre-Gaussian beam, qudit
