Correlations of Rydberg excitations in an ultra-cold gas after an echo sequence

Abstract

We show that Rydberg states in an ultra-cold gas can be excited with strongly preferred nearest-neighbor distance if densities are well below saturation. The scheme makes use of an echo sequence in which the first half of a laser pulse excites Rydberg states while the second half returns atoms to the ground state, as in the experiment of Raitzsch et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 (2008) 013002]. Near to the end of the echo sequence, almost any remaining Rydberg atom is separated from its next-neighbor Rydberg atom by a distance slightly larger than the instantaneous blockade radius half-way through the pulse. These correlations lead to large deviations of the atom counting statistics from a Poissonian distribution. Our results are based on the exact quantum evolution of samples with small numbers of atoms. We finally demonstrate the utility of the omega-expansion for the approximate description of correlation dynamics through an echo sequence.

arXiv comment8 pages, 6 figures

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• Quantum simulation of energy transport with embedded Rydberg aggregates
• Adiabatic Formation of Rydberg Crystals with Chirped Laser Pulses
• Entropic enhancement of spatial correlations in a laser-driven Rydberg gas
• Phase-Imprinting of Bose-Einstein Condensates with Rydberg Impurities
• A hybrid model for Rydberg gases including exact two-body correlations
• Finite-size effects in strongly interacting Rydberg gases
• Simulation of the Dynamics of Many-Body Quantum Spin Systems Using Phase-Space Techniques
• Rydberg crystallization detection by statistical means
• Control of spatial correlations between Rydberg excitations using rotary echo
• Quantum dynamics of long-range interacting systems using the positive-P and gauge-P representations
• Quantum signature for laser-driven correlated excitation of Rydberg atoms
• Quantum-classical model for the formation of Rydberg molecules