Atom-pair kinetics with strong electric-dipole interactions

Abstract

Rydberg-atom ensembles are switched from a weakly- into a strongly-interacting regime via adiabatic transformation of the atoms from an approximately non-polar into a highly dipolar quantum state. The resultant electric dipole-dipole forces are probed using a device akin to a field ion microscope. Ion imaging and pair-correlation analysis reveal the kinetics of the interacting atoms. Dumbbell-shaped pair correlation images demonstrate the anisotropy of the binary dipolar force. The dipolar $C_3$ coefficient, derived from the time dependence of the images, agrees with the value calculated from the permanent electric-dipole moment of the atoms. The results indicate many-body dynamics akin to disorder-induced heating in strongly coupled particle systems.

References in corpus (16)

• Dipole Blockade and Quantum Information Processing in Mesoscopic Atomic Ensembles
• Observation of Rydberg blockade between two atoms
• Stabilizing a purely dipolar quantum gas against collapse
• d-wave collapse and explosion of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate
• Dynamical crystallization in a low-dimensional Rydberg gas
• Dynamical Crystallization in the Dipole Blockade of Ultracold Atoms
• Direct measurement of the van der Waals interaction between two Rydberg atoms
• Coherent dipole-dipole coupling between two single atoms at a Förster resonance
• Spatially resolved observation of dipole-dipole interaction between Rydberg atoms
• Mesoscopic Rydberg-blockaded ensembles in the superatom regime and beyond
• Measurement of the Angular Dependence of the Dipole-Dipole Interaction Between Two Individual Rydberg Atoms at a Förster Resonance
• Adiabatic Formation of Rydberg Crystals with Chirped Laser Pulses
• Van der Waals explosion of cold Rydberg clusters
• Measurement of van-der-Waals interaction by atom trajectory imaging
• Break-up of Rydberg superatoms via dipole-dipole interactions
• Dipolar Rydberg-atom gas prepared by adiabatic passage through an avoided crossing

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Long-range Rydberg-atom-ion molecules of Rb and Cs
• Optical trapping of ultracold dysprosium atoms: transition probabilities, dynamic dipole polarizabilities and van der Waals $C_6$ coefficients
• Rydberg Aggregates
• Controlling the dipole blockade and ionization rate of Rydberg atoms in strong electric fields
• Quantum Zeno suppression of dipole-dipole forces
• 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
• Exciton induced directed motion of unconstrained atoms in an ultracold gas
• Mean-field energy-level shifts and dielectric properties of strongly polarized Rydberg gases
• Non-adiabatic dynamics in Rydberg gases with random atom positions
• Emergence of Spatial Order in Highly Interacting Rydberg Gases
• Role of mechanical effects on the excitation spectra of microwave-dressed Rydberg states in a cold atomic cloud
• Roton-Induced Trapping in Strongly Correlated Rydberg Gases