Related papers: Rydberg superatoms: An artificial quantum system f…
Quantum optics based on highly excited atoms, also known as Rydberg atoms, has cemented itself as a powerful platform for the manipulation of light at the few-photon level. The Rydberg blockade, resulting from the strong interaction between…
Quantum information processing based on Rydberg atoms emerged as a promising direction two decades ago. Recent experimental and theoretical progresses have shined exciting light on this avenue. In this concise review, we will briefly…
This review summarizes experimental works performed over the last decade by several groups on the manipulation of a few individual interacting Rydberg atoms. These studies establish arrays of single Rydberg atoms as a promising platform for…
Ensembles of atoms interacting via their Rydberg levels, known as "superatoms" for their ability to encode qubits and to emit single photons, attract increasing attention as building blocks for quantum network nodes. Assessing their…
Strong interactions can amplify quantum effects such that they become important on macroscopic scales. Controlling these coherently on a single particle level is essential for the tailored preparation of strongly correlated quantum systems…
Applicability of Rydberg atoms to quantum computers is examined from experimental point of view. In many theoretical proposals appeared recently, excitation of atoms into highly excited Rydberg states was considered as a way to achieve…
Optically trapped Rydberg atoms are a suitable platform to explore quantum many-body physics mediated by long-range atom--atom interactions that can be engineered through externally applied light fields. However, this approach is limited to…
When atoms are excited to high-lying Rydberg states they interact strongly with dipolar forces. The resulting state-dependent level shifts allow to study many-body systems displaying intriguing nonequilibrium phenomena, such as constrained…
Rydberg atoms with principal quantum number n >> 1 have exaggerated atomic properties including dipole-dipole interactions that scale as n^4 and radiative lifetimes that scale as n^3. It was proposed a decade ago to take advantage of these…
We review here the studies performed about interactions in an assembly of cold Rydberg atoms. We focus more specially the review on the dipole-dipole interactions and on the effect of the dipole blockade in the laser Rydberg excitation,…
Recent developments in the study of ultracold Rydberg gases demand an advanced level of experimental sophistication, in which high atomic and optical densities must be combined with excellent control of external fields and sensitive Rydberg…
The dipole blockade between Rydberg atoms has been proposed as a basic tool in quantum information processing with neutral atoms. Here we demonstrate experimentally the Rydberg blockade of two individual atoms separated by 4 $\mu$m.…
We describe a technique for manipulating quantum information stored in collective states of mesoscopic ensembles. Quantum processing is accomplished by optical excitation into states with strong dipole-dipole interactions. The resulting…
Photon-mediated dipole-dipole interactions arise from atom-light interactions, which are universal and prevalent in a wide range of open quantum systems. This pairwise and long-range spin-exchange interaction results from multiple light…
We review Rydberg aggregates, assemblies of a few Rydberg atoms exhibiting energy transport through collective eigenstates, considering isolated atoms or assemblies embedded within clouds of cold ground-state atoms. We classify Rydberg…
Coupling light to ensembles of strongly interacting particles has emerged as a promising route toward achieving few photon nonlinearities. One specific way to implement this kind of nonlinearity is to interface light with highly excited…
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…
By mapping the strong interaction between Rydberg excitations in ultra-cold atomic ensembles onto single photons via electromagnetically induced transparency, it is now possible to realize a nonlinear optical medium which exhibits a strong…
This topical review addresses how Rydberg atoms can serve as building blocks for emerging quantum technologies. Whereas the fabrication of large numbers of artificial quantum systems with the uniformity required for the most attractive…
Interfacing light and matter at the quantum level is at the heart of modern atomic and optical physics and enables new quantum technologies involving the manipulation of single photons and atoms. A prototypical atom-light interface is…