Related papers: Atomic Rydberg Reservoirs for Polar Molecules
We study resonant optical excitations of atoms in a one-dimensional lattice to the Rydberg states interacting via the van der Waals potential which suppresses simultaneous excitation of neighboring atoms. Considering two- and three-level…
We report on the observation of ultralong range interactions in a gas of cold Rubidium Rydberg atoms. The van-der-Waals interaction between a pair of Rydberg atoms separated as far as 100,000 Bohr radii features two important effects:…
We present first steps toward understanding the ultracold scattering properties of polar molecules in strong electric field-seeking states. We have found that the elastic cross section displays a quasi-regular set of potential resonances as…
The observation of significant dipolar effects in gases of ultra-cold polar molecules typically demands a strong external electric field to polarize the molecules. We show that even in the absence of a significant polarization, dipolar…
We describe a method for controlling many-body states in extended ensembles of Rydberg atoms, forming crystalline structures during laser excitation of a frozen atomic gas. Specifically, we predict the existence of an excitation number…
Rydberg dressing traditionally refers to a technique where interactions between cold atoms are imprinted through the far off-resonant continuous-wave excitation of high-lying Rydberg states. Dipolar interactions between these electronic…
In this thesis, we develop a simple model potential for polar molecules that effectively and accurately represents the thermodynamics of dilute gases. This potential models dipolar interactions, with a nonpolar spherical component, as seen…
The design of an experiment on the spontaneous crystallization of a laser-cooled, but thermal atomic cloud into a hexagonally structured phase is discussed. Atomic interaction is mediated by the dipole potential of an optical lattice formed…
We propose and analyze a new scheme to produce ultracold neutral plasmas deep in the strongly coupled regime. The method exploits the interaction blockade between cold atoms excited to high-lying Rydberg states and therefore does not…
We calculate properties of dipolar interacting ultracold molecules or Rydberg atoms in a semi-synthetic three-dimensional configuration -- one synthetic dimension plus a two-dimensional real space optical lattice or periodic microtrap array…
We present the first simultaneous trapping of two different ultracold atomic species in a conservative trap. Lithium and cesium atoms are stored in an optical dipole trap formed by the focus of a CO$_2$ laser. Techniques for loading both…
Cooling of molecules via free-space dissipative scattering of photons is thought not to be practicable due to the inherently large number of Raman loss channels available to molecules and the prohibitive expense of building multiple…
We present experimental results on the controlled de-excitation of Rydberg states in a cold gas of Rb atoms. The effect of the van der Waals interactions between the Rydberg atoms is clearly seen in the de-excitation spectrum and dynamics.…
A theory of Rydberg atom interactions is used to derive analytical forms for the spin wave pair correlation function in laser-excited cold-atom vapors. This function controls the quantum statistics of light emission from dense,…
The spectral structure underlying excitonic energy transfer in ultra-cold Rydberg gases is studied numerically, in the framework of random matrix theory, and via self-consistent diagrammatic techniques. Rydberg gases are made up of randomly…
We show how a broad class of lattice spin-1/2 models with angular- and distance-dependent couplings can be realized with cold alkali atoms stored in optical or magnetic trap arrays. The effective spin-1/2 is represented by a pair of atomic…
We study resonant optical excitations of strongly-interacting Rydberg states of atoms in the presence of relaxations. We employ the quantum stochastic (Monte Carlo) wavefunctions to simulate the dissipative dynamics of tens of atoms in…
When ground state atoms are excited to a Rydberg state, van der Waals interactions among them can lead to a strong suppression of the excitation. Despite the strong interactions the evolution can still be reversed by a simple phase shift in…
We propose a novel scheme to efficiently tune the scattering length of two colliding ground-state atoms by off-resonantly coupling the scattering-state to an excited Rydberg-molecular state using laser light. For the s-wave scattering of…
One of the most striking features of the strong interactions between Rydberg atoms is the dipole blockade effect, which allows only a single excitation to the Rydberg state within the volume of the blockade sphere. Here we present a method…