Enhancement of Rydberg atom interactions using ac Stark shifts.

The ac Stark effect was used to induce resonant energy transfer between translationally cold 85Rb Rydberg atoms. When a 28.5 GHz dressing field was set at specific field strengths, the two-atom dipole-dipole process 43d5/2+43d5/2-->45p3/2+41f was dramatically enhanced, due to induced degeneracy of the initial and final states. This method for enhancing interactions is complementary to dc electric-field-induced resonant energy transfer, but has more flexibility due to the possibility of varying the applied frequency.