Strongly Correlated Growth of Rydberg Aggregates in a Vapor Cell

Urvoy, Alban; Ripka, Fabian; Lesanovsky, Igor; Booth, Donald; Shaffer, James P.; Pfau, Tilman; Löw, Robert

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.114.203002

Cited by 144 publications

(191 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Modifying Eq. (4) would also enable analysis of off-resonant excitation effects like the growth of Rydberg aggregates [25,26]. Such approaches can further extend the use of random graphs as an approximation to particle systems that exhibit complicated interactions.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sub-Poissonian Statistics of Jamming Limits in Ultracold Rydberg Gases

2015

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Several recent experiments have established by measuring the Mandel Q parameter that the number of Rydberg excitations in ultracold gases exhibits sub-Poissonian statistics. This effect is attributed to the Rydberg blockade that occurs due to the strong interatomic interactions between highly-excited atoms. Because of this blockade effect, the system can end up in a state in which all particles are either excited or blocked: a jamming limit. We analyze appropriately constructed random-graph models that capture the blockade effect, and derive formulae for the mean and variance of the number of Rydberg excitations in jamming limits. This yields an explicit relationship between the Mandel Q parameter and the blockade effect, and comparison to measurement data shows strong agreement between theory and experiment.

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Section: Fig 5 Histogrammentioning

confidence: 99%

Sub-Poissonian Statistics of Jamming Limits in Ultracold Rydberg Gases

2015

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“…The spectrum includes light-driven semiconductor heterostructures [15], arrays of driven microcavities [16,17], cold atoms in optical lattices [18], cavities [19,20] and microtraps [21][22][23]. Several among these instances employ excitation of the atoms to high-lying Rydberg orbitals [24][25][26] in order to achieve strong interatomic interactions and to study cooperative effects [27][28][29]. In all these systems, the driving/dissipation introduces coherence loss and explicitly violates the equilibrium conditions at the microscopic level [7,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Absorbing State Phase Transition with Competing Quantum and Classical Fluctuations

et al. 2016

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Stochastic processes with absorbing states feature remarkable examples of non-equilibrium universal phenomena. While a broad understanding has been progressively established in the classical regime, relatively little is known about the behavior of these non-equilibrium systems in the presence of quantum fluctuations. Here we theoretically address such a scenario in an open quantum spin model which in its classical limit undergoes a directed percolation phase transition. By mapping the problem to a non-equilibrium field theory, we show that the introduction of quantum fluctuations stemming from coherent, rather than statistical, spin-flips alters the nature of the transition such that it becomes first-order. In the intermediate regime, where classical and quantum dynamics compete on equal terms, we highlight the presence of a bicritical point with universal features different from the directed percolation class in low dimension. We finally propose how this physics could be explored within gases of interacting atoms excited to Rydberg states.

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“…The van der Waals interaction is important in the description and control of interactions in few-and manybody dynamics studies. This interaction has been critical in the observation of Rydberg excitation blockades and collective excitations [1][2][3][4], Rydberg crystals [5,6], and Rydberg aggregates [7,8]. Rydberg interactions have been used in quantum information processsing [9][10][11][12].…”

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“…3 for the first Rydbergatom pair is set to be twice the laser detuning δν L . For the excitation of additional atoms we use δ = δν L to simulate the stepwise addition of those atoms, which can be a near-resonant process with other atoms already present [8]. Detunings due to the Doppler effect are about 300 kHz and are neglected.…”

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confidence: 99%

Measurement of the van der Waals interaction by atom trajectory imaging

2015

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We study the repulsive van der Waals interaction of cold rubidium 70S 1/2 Rydberg atoms by analysis of time-delayed pair correlation functions. After excitation, Rydberg atoms are allowed to accelerate under the influence of the van der Waals force. Their positions are then measured using a single-atom imaging technique. From the average pair correlation function of the atom positions we obtain the initial atom-pair separation and the terminal velocity, which yield the van der Waals interaction coefficient C6. The measured C6 value agrees well with calculations. The experimental method has been validated by simulations. The data hint at anisotropy in the overall expansion, caused by the shape of the excitation volume. Our measurement implies that the interacting entities are individual Rydberg atoms, not groups of atoms that coherently share a Rydberg excitation. The van der Waals interaction is important in the description and control of interactions in few-and manybody dynamics studies. This interaction has been critical in the observation of Rydberg excitation blockades and collective excitations [1][2][3][4], Rydberg crystals [5,6], and Rydberg aggregates [7,8]. Rydberg interactions have been used in quantum information processsing [9][10][11][12]. The van der Waals interaction between two Rydberg atoms has been measured using spectroscopic methods [13,14]. Several measurements have been performed near surfaces to observe radiative Rydberg-level shifts caused by image charge interaction near metal surfaces [15,16]. The van der Waals interaction between excited cesium atoms and a dielectric surface has been measured using selective reflection spectroscopy [17].Here, we develop a method to study the van der Waals interaction between Rydberg atoms using direct spatial imaging of their trajectories [18][19][20][21]. Pairs of 70S 1/2 rubidium Rydberg atoms are prepared with a well-defined initial separation by detuning an excitation laser and utilizing the r −6 dependence of the van der Waals interaction [21,22]. After preparation, the atoms are subject to van der Waals forces (which are repulsive in this case). The effect of the forces is observed by tracking the interatomic distance between the Rydberg atoms, after they have been allowed to move for selected wait times (see Fig. 1). The atom trajectories and thereby the van der Waals interaction coefficient C 6 are extracted from the pair correlation functions of the Rydberg atom positions.The experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1(a). 85 Rb ground-state atoms are prepared in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) at a density of 10 10 cm −3 . The twophoton Rydberg excitation to 70S 1/2 is driven by simultaneous 780 nm and 480 nm laser pulses with a 5 µs duration and ≈1 GHz red-detuning from the 5P 3/2 intermediate state. Both beams propagate in the xy plane and are linearly polarized alongẑ. The 780 nm beam has a Gaussian beam parameter w 0 of 0.75 mm and the 480 nm beam is focused to w 0 = 8 µm. The Rydberg atoms are ionized by applying a high voltage to a tip imaging p...

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Strongly Correlated Growth of Rydberg Aggregates in a Vapor Cell

Cited by 144 publications

References 37 publications

Sub-Poissonian Statistics of Jamming Limits in Ultracold Rydberg Gases

Sub-Poissonian Statistics of Jamming Limits in Ultracold Rydberg Gases

Absorbing State Phase Transition with Competing Quantum and Classical Fluctuations

Measurement of the van der Waals interaction by atom trajectory imaging

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