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arXiv · 2602.05959

Extended Rydberg Lifetimes in a Cryogenic Atom Array

Junlan Jin·Yue Shi·Youssef Aziz Alaoui·Jingxin Deng·Yukai Lu·Jeff D. Thompson·Waseem S. Bakr
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Abstract

We report on the realization of a $^{133}$Cs optical tweezer array in a cryogenic blackbody radiation (BBR) environment. By enclosing the array within a 4K radiation shield, we measure long Rydberg lifetimes, up to $406 (36)\,\mu$s for the $55 P_{3/2}$ Rydberg state, a factor of 3.3(3) longer than the room-temperature value. We employ single-photon coupling for coherent manipulation of the ground-Rydberg qubit. We measure a small differential dynamic polarizability of the transition, beneficial for reducing dephasing due to light intensity fluctuations. Our results pave the path for advancing neutral-atom two-qubit gate fidelities as their error budgets become increasingly dominated by $T_1$ relaxation of the ground-Rydberg qubit.

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Junlan Jin, Yue Shi, Youssef Aziz Alaoui, Jingxin Deng, Yukai Lu, Jeff D. Thompson, Waseem S. Bakr. 2026-02-05. Extended Rydberg Lifetimes in a Cryogenic Atom Array. https://doi.org/10.1103/96bx-rjwz

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