Related papers: Quasi-static Lineshape Theory for Rydberg Excitati…
Understanding and probing phase transitions in non-equilibrium systems is an ongoing challenge in physics. A particular instance are phase transitions that occur between a non-fluctuating absorbing phase, e.g., an extinct population, and…
Assemblies of highly excited Rydberg atoms in an ultracold gas can be set into motion by a combination of van-der-Waals and resonant dipole-dipole interactions. Thereby, the collective electronic Rydberg state might change due to…
In an ensemble of laser-driven atoms involving strongly interacting Rydberg states, the excitation probability is usually strongly suppressed. In contrast, here we identify a regime in which the steady-state Rydberg excited fraction is…
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.…
The competition between resonant optical excitation of Rydberg states of atoms and their strong, long-range van der Waals interaction results in spatial ordering of Rydberg excitations in a two-dimensional lattice gas, as observed in a…
We demonstrate that through localised Rydberg excitation in a three-dimensional cold atom cloud atomic motion can be rendered directed and nearly confined to a plane, without spatial constraints for the motion of individual atoms. This…
We show that nuclear motion of Rydberg atoms can be induced by resonant dipole-dipole interactions that trigger the energy transfer between two energetically close Rydberg states. How and if the atoms move depends on their initial…
We study the quantum melting of quasi-one-dimensional lattice models in which the dominant energy scale is given by a repulsive dipolar interaction. By constructing an effective low-energy theory, we show that the melting of crystalline…
The recent observation of high-lying Rydberg states of excitons in semiconductors with relatively high binding energy motivates exploring their applications in quantum nonlinear optics and quantum information processing. Here, we study…
We theoretically analyze the interactions and decay rates for atoms dressed by multiple laser fields to strongly interacting Rydberg states using a quantum master equation approach. In this framework a comparison of two-level and…
We demonstrate the flexible tunability of excitation transport in Rydberg atoms, under the interplay of controlled dissipation and interaction-induced synthetic flux. Considering a minimum four-site setup -- a triangular configuration with…
Dipole-dipole interactions between helium atoms in Rydberg-Stark states with principal quantum number $n=53$ and approximately linear Stark energy shifts, resulting from induced electric dipole moments of approximately 7900 D, have been…
We introduce a novel method to engineer sharply peaked, distance-selective interactions between neutral atoms by exploiting interaction-induced resonances within a resonantly driven Rydberg ladder system. By tuning laser parameters, a…
We show that Rydberg states in an ultra-cold gas can be excited with strongly preferred nearest-neighbor distance if densities are well below saturation. The scheme makes use of an echo sequence in which the first half of a laser pulse…
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…
Strongly-interacting Rydberg atomic ensembles have shown intense collective excitation effects due to the inclusion of single Rydberg excitation shared by multiple atoms in the ensemble. In this paper we investigate a counter-intuitive…
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…
A unified electrodynamic approach to the guided-wave excitation theory is generalized to the waveguiding structures containing a hypothetical space-dispersive medium with drifting charge carriers possessing simultaneously elastic,…
Strongly interacting arrays of Rydberg atoms provide versatile platforms for exploring exotic many-body phases and dynamics of correlated quantum systems. Motivated by recent experimental advances, we show that the combination of Rydberg…
Using time-resolved measurements, we demonstrate coherent collective Rydberg excitation crossing over into Rydberg blockade in a dense and ultracold gas trapped at a distance of 100 $\mu$m from a room-temperature atom chip. We perform…