Related papers: Hybridization of Rydberg electron orbitals by mole…
We develop an approach to generate finite-range atomic interactions via optical Rydberg-state excitation and study the underlying excitation dynamics in theory and experiment. In contrast to previous work, the proposed scheme is based on…
We study the effect of resonances associated with complex molecular interaction of Rydberg atoms on Rydberg blockade. We show that densely-spaced molecular potentials between doubly-excited atomic pairs become unavoidably resonant with the…
We propose a novel type of Rydberg dimer, consisting of a Rydberg-state atom bound to a distant positive ion. The molecule is formed through long-range electric-multipole interaction between the Rydberg atom and the point-like ion. We…
An approach to fast entanglement generation based on Rydberg dephasing of collective excitations (spin-waves) in large, optically thick atomic ensembles is proposed. Long-range $1/r^3$ atomic interactions are induced by microwave mixing of…
We characterize the two-photon excitation of an ultracold gas of Rubidium atoms to Rydberg states analysing the induced atomic losses from an optical dipole trap. Extending the duration of the Rydberg excitation to several ms, the ground…
High-harmonic generation is typically thought of as a sub-laser-cycle process, with the electron's excursion in the continuum lasting a fraction of the optical cycle. However, it was recently suggested that long-lived Rydberg states can…
Ultracold atoms are an ideal platform to study strongly correlated phases of matter in and out of equilibrium. Much of the experimental progress in this field crucially relies on the control of the contact interaction between two atoms.…
Trapped Rydberg ions represent a flexible platform for quantum simulation and information processing which combines a high degree of control over electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom. The possibility to individually excite ions to…
Controlling molecular binding at the level of single atoms is one of the holy grails of quantum chemistry. Rydberg macrodimers -- bound states between highly excited Rydberg atoms -- provide a novel perspective in this direction. Resulting…
We report the engineering of molecular potentials at large interatomic distances. The molecular states are generated by off-resonant optical coupling to a highly excited, long-range Rydberg molecular potential. The coupling produces a…
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…
We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the effects of Rydberg interactions on Autler-Townes spectra of ultracold gases of atomic strontium. Realizing two-photon Rydberg excitation via a long-lived triplet state allows…
Coupling light to Rydberg states of atoms under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) leads to the formation of strongly interacting quasi-particles, termed Rydberg polaritons. We derive a one-dimensional model…
By investigating the quantum properties of magnetically trapped nS Rydberg atoms, it is demonstrated that the composite nature of Rydberg atoms significantly alters their trapping properties opposed to point-like particles with the same…
The dipole blockade of Rydberg excitations is a hallmark of the strong interactions between atoms in these high-lying quantum states. One of the consequences of the dipole blockade is the suppression of fluctuations in the counting…
The collective excitations in ensembles of dissipative, laser driven ultracold atoms exhibit crystal-like patterns, a many-body effect of the Rydberg blockade mechanism. These crystalline structure are revealed in experiment from a…
Experiments in dense, ultracold gases of rubidium Rydberg atoms show a considerable decrease of the radiative excited state lifetimes compared to dilute gases. This accelerated decay is explained by collective and cooperative effects,…
Atoms in highly excited Rydberg states exhibit remarkable properties and constitute a powerful tool for studying quantum phenomena in strongly interacting many-particle systems. We investigate alkali atoms that are held in a ring lattice…
We report on the observation of interactions between ultracold Rydberg atoms and ions in a Paul trap. The rate of observed inelastic collisions, which manifest themselves as charge transfer between the Rydberg atoms and ions, exceeds that…
We study atoms in optical lattices whose electronic ground state is off-resonantly coupled to a highly excited state with strong binary interactions. We present a time-dependent treatment of the resulting quantum dynamics, which -- contrary…