Related papers: Radiation trapping in a dense cold Rydberg gas
Light propagating in an optically thick sample experiences multiple scattering. It is now known that interferences alter this propagation, leading to an enhanced backscattering, a manifestation of weak localization of light in such diffuse…
We theoretically investigate the effect of dissipation on multi-photon excitation of Rydberg atoms. The steady states and the dynamics are compared via two types of four-level excitation schemes with different dissipative paths of…
This work reports on the real-time detection of internal-state dynamics of cold Rb$^{87}$ atoms being excited to the $30D_{5/2}$ Rydberg state via two-photon excitation. A mesoscopic cloud of atoms is overlapped with the mode volume of a…
The results of a theoretical investigation of prompt many-body ionization are reported. Our calculations address an experiment that reported ionization in Rydberg gases for densities two orders of magnitude less than expected from…
Out-of-equilibrium, strong correlation in a many-body system triggers emergent properties that can act in important ways to constrain the natural dissipation of energy and matter. Networks of atoms, intricately engineered to arrange…
We demonstrate the interaction-induced blockade effect in an ultracold $^{88}$Sr gas via studying the time dynamics of a two-photon excitation to the triplet Rydberg series $5\mathrm{s}n\mathrm{s}\, ^3\textrm{S}_1$ for five different…
We report on the experimental observation of non-trivial three-photon correlations imprinted onto initially uncorrelated photons through interaction with a single Rydberg superatom. Exploiting the Rydberg blockade mechanism, we turn a cold…
Coupling photons to Rydberg excitations in a cold atomic gas yields unprecedentedly large optical nonlinearities at the level of individual light quanta, where the formation of nearby dark-state polaritons is blocked by the strong…
The observation of strongly interacting many-body phenomena in atomic gases typically requires ultracold samples. Here we show that the strong interaction potentials between Rydberg atoms enable the observation of many-body effects in an…
Rydberg atoms are in the focus of intense research due to the peculiar properties which make them interesting candidates for quantum optics and quantum information applications. In this work we study the ionization of Rydberg atoms due to…
Rydberg atoms are remarkable tools for quantum simulation and computation. They are the focus of an intense experimental activity mainly based on low-angular-momentum Rydberg states. Unfortunately, atomic motion and levels lifetime limit…
We study the impact of Rydberg molecule formation on the storage and retrieval of Rydberg polaritons in an ultracold atomic medium. We observe coherent revivals appearing in the retrieval efficiency of stored photons that originate from…
We demonstrate a non-equilibrium phase transition in a dilute thermal atomic gas. The phase transition, between states of low and high Rydberg occupancy, is induced by resonant dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg atoms. The gas can…
We investigate the spectral properties of a finite laser-driven lattice of ultracold Rydberg atoms exploiting the dipole blockade effect in the frozen Rydberg gas regime. Uniform one-dimensional lattices as well as lattices with variable…
The dipole blockade effect at laser excitation of mesoscopic ensembles of Rydberg atoms lies in the fact that the excitation of one atom to a Rydberg state blocks the excitation of other atoms due to the shift in the collective energy…
Cold Rydberg atoms, known for their long lifetimes and strong dipole-dipole interactions that lead to the Rydberg blockade phenomenon, are among the most promising platforms for quantum simulations, quantum computation and quantum networks.…
We report on highly effective trapping of cold atoms by a new method for a stable single optical trap in the near-optical resonant regime. An optical trap with the near-optical resonance condition consists of not only the dipole but also…
We describe the emergence of strong spatial correlations, akin to liquid-like behavior and crystallization effects, in low (one and two) dimensional gases of cold Rydberg atoms. The presence of an external electric field permanently…
Rydberg states of atoms are of great current interest for quantum manipulation of mesoscopic samples of atoms. Long-range Rydberg-Rydberg interactions can inhibit multiple excitations of atoms under the appropriate conditions. These…
We review experimental and theoretical tools to excite, study and understand strongly interacting Rydberg gases. The focus lies on the excitation of dense ultracold atomic samples close to, or within quantum degeneracy, to high lying…