Strongly Correlated Gases of Rydberg-Dressed Atoms: Quantum and Classical Dynamics

Journal Article · Fri Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.104.223002· OSTI ID:21410382

Pupillo, G; Micheli, A; Zoller, P ^[1]; Boninsegni, M ^[2]; Lesanovsky, I ^[3]

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1. Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, and Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Innsbruck (Austria)
2. Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2J1 (Canada)
3. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham (United Kingdom)

We discuss techniques to generate long-range interactions in a gas of ground state alkali atoms, by weakly admixing excited Rydberg states with laser light. This provides a tool to engineer strongly correlated phases with reduced decoherence from inelastic collisions and spontaneous emission. As an illustration, we discuss the quantum phases of dressed atoms with dipole-dipole interactions confined in a harmonic potential, as relevant to experiments. We show that residual spontaneous emission from the Rydberg state acts as a heating mechanism, leading to a quantum-classical crossover.

• OSTI ID: 21410382
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 22; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.223002; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATOMS
CLASSICAL MECHANICS
COLLISIONS
DIPOLES
EMISSION
GASES
GROUND STATES
HARMONIC POTENTIAL
HEATING
INELASTIC SCATTERING
INTERACTION RANGE
LASER RADIATION
QUANTUM MECHANICS
RYDBERG STATES
DISTANCE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY LEVELS
EXCITED STATES
FLUIDS
MECHANICS
MULTIPOLES
NUCLEAR POTENTIAL
POTENTIALS
RADIATIONS
SCATTERING