Interplay between van der Waals and dipole-dipole interactions among Rydberg atoms

Abstract

Coherently manipulating Rydberg atoms in mesoscopic systems has proven challenging due to the unwanted population of nearby Rydberg levels by black-body radiation. Recently, there have been some efforts towards understanding these effects using states with a low principal quantum number that only have resonant dipole-dipole interactions. We perform experiments that exhibit black-body-induced dipole-dipole interactions for a state that also has a significant van der Waals interaction. Using an enhanced rate-equation model that captures some of the long-range properties of the dipolar interaction, we show that the initial degree of Rydberg excitation is dominated by the van der Waals interaction, while the observed linewidth at later times is dominated by the dipole-dipole interaction. We also point out some prospects for quantum simulation.

arXiv comment12 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (20)

• Probing many-body dynamics on a 51-atom quantum simulator
• ARC: An open-source library for calculating properties of alkali Rydberg atoms
• Coherent Excitation Transfer in a Spin Chain of Three Rydberg Atoms
• An experimental and theoretical guide to strongly interacting Rydberg gases
• Coherent dipole-dipole coupling between two single atoms at a Förster resonance
• Rydberg dressing: Understanding of collective many-body effects and implications for experiments
• Towards quantum simulation with circular Rydberg atoms
• Anomalous broadening in driven dissipative Rydberg systems
• Coherence and Rydberg blockade of atomic ensemble qubits
• Quantum simulation of energy transport with embedded Rydberg aggregates
• Box traps on an atom chip for one-dimensional quantum gases
• Dissipation induced dipole blockade and anti-blockade in driven Rydberg systems
• Spontaneous avalanche dephasing in large Rydberg ensembles
• Rydberg dressing of a one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate
• Uncovering the non-equilibrium phase structure of an open quantum spin system
• A medium-finesse optical cavity for the stabilization of Rydberg lasers
• Epidemic dynamics in open quantum spin systems
• Measurements of individual and ensemble lifetimes of high-lying Rb Rydberg states
• Characterizing the local vectorial electric field near an atom chip using Rydberg state spectroscopy
• From coherent collective excitation to Rydberg blockade on an atom chip

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Black-body radiation induced facilitated excitation of Rydberg atoms in optical tweezers
• Supersolidity in Rydberg tweezer arrays
• Increasing decoherence rate of Rydberg polaritons due to accumulating dark Rydberg atoms
• Role of mechanical effects on the excitation spectra of microwave-dressed Rydberg states in a cold atomic cloud