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arXiv:1305.2341 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Dynamics and equilibration of Rydberg excitations in dissipative atomic ensembles

David Petrosyan

Published Jun 21, 2013• 14 citations
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Abstract

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 two-dimensional lattices. We show that under typical experimental conditions involving the slow Rydberg state decay and sizable relaxation of atomic coherences, on the timescale of several μs the atomic ensemble approaches a stationary state in which much of the quantum correlations between the atoms have decayed away. The steady state, however, exhibits strong classical correlations of Rydberg excitation probabilities.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/46/14/141001

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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 two-dimensional lattices. We show that under typical experimental conditions involving the slow Rydberg state decay and sizable relaxation of atomic coherences, on the timescale of several μs the atomic ensemble approaches a stationary state in which much of the quantum correlations between the atoms have decayed away. The steady state, however, exhibits strong classical correlations of Rydberg excitation probabilities.
We study many-body correlations in the stationary state of a continuously driven, strongly interacting dissipative system. Specifically, we examine resonant optical excitations of Rydberg states of atoms interacting via long-range dipole-dipole and van der Waals potentials employing numerical and analytical techniques. Collection of atoms within a blockade distance form a ``superatom'' that can accommodate at most one Rydberg excitation. The superatom excitation probability saturates to 12\frac{1}{2}21​ for coherently driven atoms but is significantly higher in the presence of dephasing, approaching unity as the number of atoms increases. Using the exact numerical solution of the density-matrix equations for a small system, we demonstrate that strong dephasing of the optically driven dipoles renders the many-body problem amenable to semiclassical Monte Carlo simulations. We employ the Monte Carlo algorithm for a large number of atoms and find that in the steady state of a uniformly driven, extended one-dimensional system, the saturation of superatoms leads to quasicrystallization of Rydberg excitations whose correlations exhibit damped spatial oscillations. We show that the behavior of the system under the van der Waals interaction potential can be approximated by a rate-equations model based on a ``hard-rod'' interatomic potential, and by solving it we obtain the period and correlation length for the density wave of Rydberg excitations.
Inevitably present in many current experiments with ultracold Rydberg atoms, dissipative effects such as dephasing and decay modify the dynamics of the examined system. In this thesis, the dynamics of many-body Rydberg systems in the incoherent regime is studied numerically. Specifically, a wave function Monte Carlo (MCWF) technique is integrated into a coherent two-level many-body Rydberg model, allowing a numerical simulation of dissipative dynamics. This model is used to benchmark a steady-state rate equation model and assess its range of validity. In addition, incoherent, off-resonant excitation dynamics is studied in a one-dimensional disordered geometry. We find that our simulation results can essentially be explained by the equilibration time scale as well as — for positive laser detuning — resonant excitations arising when the laser detuning compensates the Rydberg interaction. Eventually, we employ a rate equation model to investigate excitation spectra for an experimental trap geometry, which we benchmark using the MCWF technique. Based on numerical data, we deduce that in the considered parameter regime the dominant excitation mechanism can be characterized as sequential growth of aggregates of Rydberg excitations around an initial seed. Our simulation results highlight the impact of incoherent effects on observables such as Rydberg population, excitation number fluctuation and pair correlation function.
The work presented in this dissertation concerns dynamics of Rydberg atom lattices in the presence of noise and dissipation. Rydberg atoms possess a number of exaggerated properties, such as a strong van der Waals interaction. The interplay of that interaction, coherent driving and decoherence leads to intriguing non-equilibrium phenomena. Here, we study the non-equilibrium physics of driven atom lattices in the presence of decoherence caused by either laser phase noise or strong decay. In the first case, we compare between global and local noise and explore their effect on the number of excitations and the full counting statistics. We find that both types of noise give rise to a characteristic distribution of the Rydberg excitation number. The main method employed is the Langevin equation but for the sake of efficiency in certain regimes, we use a Markovian master equation and Monte Carlo rate equations, respectively. In the second case, we consider dissipative systems with more general power-law interactions. We determine the phase diagram in the steady state and analyse its generation dynamics using Monte Carlo rate equations. In contrast to nearest-neighbour models, there is no transition to long-range-ordered phases for realistic interactions and resonant driving. Yet, for finite laser detunings, we show that Rydberg atom lattices can undergo a dissipative phase transition to a long-range-ordered antiferromagnetic phase. We identify the advantages of Monte Carlo rate equations over mean field predictions. Having studied the dynamics of Rydberg atom lattices, we study an application of the strong interactions in such systems for quantum information processing. We investigate the coherent exchange of a single photon between a superconducting microwave cavity and a lattice of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms in the presence of local electric field fluctuations plaguing the cavity surface. We show that despite the increased sensitivity of Rydberg states to electric fields, as compared to ground state atoms, the Rydberg dipole-dipole interaction can be used to protect the system against the dephasing induced by the local noise. Using 1/f1/f1/f and laser phase noise models, we show that compared to the case with non-interacting atoms, our system exhibits longer coherence lifetimes and larger retrieval efficiency of the photon after storing into the atoms.
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 recent experiment of Schau\ss{} et al. [Nature (London) 491, 87 (2012)]. Here we use semiclassical Monte Carlo simulations to obtain stationary states for hundreds of atoms in finite-size lattices. We show the formation of regular spatial structures of Rydberg excitations in a system of increasing size, and find highly sub-Poissonian distribution of the number of Rydberg excitations characterized by a large negative value of the Mandel QQQ parameter which is nearly independent of the system size.
Abstract We examine the adiabatic preparation of crystalline phases of Rydberg excitations in a one-dimensional lattice gas by frequency sweep of the excitation laser, as proposed by Pohl et al (2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 043002 ) and recently realized experimentally by Schauß et al (2015 Science 347 1455 ). We find that the preparation of crystals of a few Rydberg excitations in a unitary system of several tens of atoms requires exceedingly long times for the adiabatic following of the ground state of the system Hamiltonian. Using quantum stochastic (Monte Carlo) wavefunction simulations, we show that realistic decay and dephasing processes affecting the atoms during the preparation lead to a final state of the system that has only a small overlap with the target crystalline state. Yet, the final number and highly sub-Poissonian statistics of Rydberg excitations and their spatial order are little affected by the relaxations.
The nonequilibrium dynamics of a gas of cold atoms in which Rydberg states are off-resonantly excited is studied in the presence of noise. The interplay between interaction and off-resonant excitation leads to an initial dynamics where aggregates of excited Rydberg atoms slowly nucleate and grow, eventually reaching long-lived metastable arrangements which then relax further on much longer time scales. This growth dynamics is governed by an effective Master equation which permits a transparent and largely analytical understanding of the underlying physics. By means of extensive numerical simulations we study the many-body dynamics and the correlations of the resulting nonequilibrium states in various dimensions. Our results provide insight into the dynamical richness of strongly interacting Rydberg gases in noisy environments, and highlight the usefulness of these kinds of systems for the exploration of soft-matter-type collective behavior.