Spatial correlations of Rydberg excitations in optically driven atomic ensembles

Petrosyan, David; Höning, Michael; Fleischhauer, Michael

doi:10.1103/physreva.87.053414

Cited by 77 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(81 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, these adiabatic preparation techniques enable the detailed study of the underlying phase diagram, and intriguing phenomena such as the predicted two-stage melting via a floating crystal phase [6,7]. More generally, our results pave the way towards the study of quantum correlations and dissipative quantum magnets in long-range interacting Ising-type spin systems [33][34][35].…”

mentioning

confidence: 65%

Crystallization in Ising quantum magnets

Schauß

Zeiher

Fukuhara

et al. 2015

Science

297

369

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Dominating finite-range interactions in many-body systems can lead to intriguing self-ordered phases of matter. Well known examples are crystalline solids or Coulomb crystals in ion traps. In those systems, crystallization proceeds via a classical transition, driven by thermal fluctuations. In contrast, ensembles of ultracold atoms laser-excited to Rydberg states provide a well-controlled quantum system [1], in which a crystalline phase transition governed by quantum fluctuations can be explored [2][3][4]. Here we report on the experimental preparation of the crystalline states in such a Rydberg many-body system. Fast coherent control on the many-body level is achieved via numerically optimized laser excitation pulses [2][3][4]. We observe an excitation-number staircase [2][3][4][5][6][7] as a function of the system size and show directly the emergence of incompressible ordered states on its steps. Our results demonstrate the applicability of quantum optical control techniques in strongly interacting systems, paving the way towards the investigation of novel quantum phases in long-range interacting quantum systems, as well as for detailed studies of their coherence and correlation properties [2][3][4][5][6][7][8].Rydberg atoms exhibit unique properties that are key to realize and explore novel quantum many-body Hamiltonians and their phases. The strong van der Waals interaction between them allows to create many-body systems with tailored long-range interactions in neutral ultra-cold atom samples [1,9,10]. Complete experimental control of these systems is possible using the well developed toolbox of quantum optics for the laserexcitation to the Rydberg states. The magnitude of the resulting interactions between the Rydberg atoms is determined by the choice of the excited state and it can exceed all other relevant energy scales on distances of several microns, thereby leading to an ensemble dominated by long-range interactions. In this regime, the ground state of the resulting many-body system is expected to show crystalline ordering of the Rydberg excitations, which can be understood in the limit of vanishing coupling as the classical closest packing of hard spheres [11]. The lattice constant of the crystal is set by the dipole blockade radius R b [12,13], defined as the inter-particle spacing at which the dipole interaction between two Rydberg atoms exceeds the spectral range of the optical coupling. To prepare the system in this crystalline phase, a dynamical approach has been suggested that adiabatically connects the ground state containing no Rydberg excitations with the targeted crystalline state. At the heart of this dynamical crystallization technique is the coherent control of the many-body system [2][3][4][14][15][16][17].Previous experiments showed direct or indirect evidence for correlations caused by the long-range interac- * Electronic address: peter.schauss@mpq.mpg.de tions in Rydberg many-body systems, such as a universal scaling of the Rydberg excitation number [18], subPoissonian counting statis...

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mentioning

confidence: 65%

Crystallization in Ising quantum magnets

Schauß

Zeiher

Fukuhara

et al. 2015

Science

297

369

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“…They could also probe the effect of ergodicity breaking due to kinetic constraints [31] and the emergence of nonequilibrium phase transitions [32]. Furthermore, techniques for spatially resolving Rydberg excitations [33][34][35] should reveal rich spatial correlations in the dynamics [36], in analogy with dynamic heterogeneity in glasses [2][3][4]. More generally, our results give a further indication of the broad potential for applying ideas from soft-matter physics to the study of interacting atomic systems.…”

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confidence: 85%

Experimental observation of controllable kinetic constraints in a cold atomic gas

et al. 2016

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Many-body systems relaxing to equilibrium can exhibit complex dynamics even if their steady state is trivial. In situations where relaxation requires highly constrained local particle rearrangements, such as in glassy systems, this dynamics can be difficult to analyze from first principles. The essential physical ingredients, however, can be captured by idealized lattice models with so-called kinetic constraints. While so far constrained dynamics has been considered mostly as an effective and idealized theoretical description of complex relaxation, here we experimentally realize a many-body system exhibiting manifest kinetic constraints and measure its dynamical properties. In the cold Rydberg gas used in our experiments, the nature of the kinetic constraints can be tailored through the detuning of the excitation lasers from resonance. The system undergoes a dynamics which is characterized by pronounced spatial correlations or anticorrelations, depending on the detuning. Our results confirm recent theoretical predictions, and highlight the analogy between the dynamics of interacting Rydberg gases and that of certain soft-matter systems. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.93.040701 Complex collective relaxation in many-body systems is often accompanied by a dramatic slowdown of diffusion processes and the emergence of nonergodic and glassy phases [1][2][3][4]. At low temperatures or high densities their evolution is often dominated by steric hindrances affecting particle motion. Local rearrangements are highly constrained, giving rise to collective-and often slow-relaxation. These features can be seen to be the consequence of effective kinetic constraints in the dynamics [5]. A kinetic constraint is a condition on the rate for a local transition dependent on the local environment: The transition and its reverse-irrespective of whether they are energetically favorable or unfavorable-can only occur if the constraint is satisfied. Kinetic constraints [6] can severely restrict relaxation in situations where local particle arrangements make satisfying them unlikely, which is typical of fluid systems with excluded volume interactions such as dense colloids or supercooled liquids [1][2][3][4]. When a constraint is satisfied, however, the transition is allowed and a local rearrangement is "facilitated" [5,6]. Kinetic constraints naturally give rise [7] to collective and spatially heterogeneous relaxation, and are used to describe situations where the correlation properties of the dynamics go beyond those of the static stationary state, a salient feature of glassy systems [4].Steric hindrances and dynamic facilitation are argued to play a central role in the behavior of glass formers [5]. However, it can be difficult [8] to establish unambiguously the relation between microscopic processes and emerging kinetic constraints, or between idealized models with explicit kinetic constraints and actual physical systems. In this Rapid Communication we establish such a direct connection by reporting the experimental observation of correlated...

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“…2. Simultaneously, the spatial distribution of Rydberg excitations, while still retaining order imposed by the open boundary conditions [14,16,17], will resemble perfect crystal even less.…”

Section: Results Of Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the adiabatic preparation of spatially-ordered Rydberg excitations of atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice by laser frequency sweeps

Petrosyan

Mølmer

Fleischhauer

2016

J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys.

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We examine the adiabatic preparation of crystalline phases of Rydberg excitations in a onedimensional lattice gas by frequency sweep of the excitation laser, as proposed by Pohl et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 043002 (2010)] and recently realized experimentally by Schauß et al. [Science 347, 1455[Science 347, (2015]. We find that the preparation of crystals of a few Rydberg excitations in a unitary system of several tens of atoms requires exceedingly long times for the adiabatic following of the ground state of the system Hamiltonian. Using quantum stochastic (Monte-Carlo) wavefunction simulations, we show that realistic decay and dephasing processes affecting the atoms during the preparation lead to a final state of the system that has only a small overlap with the target crystalline state. Yet, the final number and highly sub-Poissonian statistics of Rydberg excitations and their spatial order are little affected by the relaxations.

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Spatial correlations of Rydberg excitations in optically driven atomic ensembles

Cited by 77 publications

References 45 publications

Crystallization in Ising quantum magnets

Crystallization in Ising quantum magnets

Experimental observation of controllable kinetic constraints in a cold atomic gas

On the adiabatic preparation of spatially-ordered Rydberg excitations of atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice by laser frequency sweeps

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