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Physical Review A

Interatom intrashell blockade

L. Sælen, Sigrid Ina Simonsen, J. P. Hansen

Published Jan 7, 2011• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a feature of the Rydberg blockade mechanism which occurs between two initially excited circular Rydberg atoms. When both atoms are exposed to weak time-dependent electric fields, it is shown that the intrashell dynamics of each atom is strongly modified by the presence of the other. Three characteristic dynamical regimes are identified with separating radii which both scale linearly with principal quantum number $n$ for otherwise constant field parameters. A region of conditional entangled electron dynamics is separated from the outer asymptotic region of independent atom dynamics through a conditional radius, ${R}_{c}$. An inner region, where both atoms becomes locked in their initial state, is again separated from the conditional region by a smaller blocking radius, ${R}_{b}$.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.83.015401

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We demonstrate a feature of the Rydberg blockade mechanism which occurs between two initially excited circular Rydberg atoms. When both atoms are exposed to weak time-dependent electric fields, it is shown that the intrashell dynamics of each atom is strongly modified by the presence of the other. Three characteristic dynamical regimes are identified with separating radii which both scale linearly with principal quantum number nnn for otherwise constant field parameters. A region of conditional entangled electron dynamics is separated from the outer asymptotic region of independent atom dynamics through a conditional radius, Rc{R}_{c}Rc​. An inner region, where both atoms becomes locked in their initial state, is again separated from the conditional region by a smaller blocking radius, Rb{R}_{b}Rb​.
The dipole blockade of very-high-$n, n\ensuremath{\sim}300$, strontium 5snf1F35snf{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{F}_{3}5snf1F3​ Rydberg atoms in a hot atomic beam is studied. For such high nnn, the blockade radius can exceed the linear dimensions of the excitation volume. Rydberg atoms formed inside the excitation volume can, upon leaving the region, continue to suppress excitation until they have moved farther away than the blockade radius. Moreover, the high density of states originating from the many magnetic sublevels associated with the FFF states results in a small but finite probability of excitation of L=3n1F3L=3\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}n{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{F}_{3}L=3n1F3​ atom pairs at small internuclear separations below the blockade radius. We demonstrate that these effects can be distinguished from one another by the distinct features they imprint on the Mandel QQQ parameter as a function of the duration of the exciting laser.
Highly excited Rydberg states, neutral atomic states with one or more electrons promoted to states of large principal quantum number n are now commonly used for producing quantum entanglement. This is facilitated through the "Rydberg Blockade" effect where the presence of a single Rydberg atom blocks excitation of further atoms in a surrounding mesoscopic volume due to strong atom-atom interactions induced by the large dipole moments associated with Rydberg atoms. In this work, we report the first observation of this phenomenon in a hot atomic beam using very high n, n ~300 - 500, strontium nF Rydberg states. Inside the blockaded volume (size around 0.1mm), the Rydberg number distribution is sub-Poissonian. However, as predicted by theoretical calculations, due to the anisotropic nature of the atom-atom interactions, the blockade is incomplete. However, the blockade effect is sufficiently strong to enable detailed study of few-body atom-atom interactions and of entanglement. Doubly-excited Rydberg states having a pair of electrons excited to high lying energy levels are typically difficult to create and are short lived because of "autoionization" resulting from electron-electron scattering. Strontium Rydberg atoms are used to study this scattering and we demonstrate an efficient mechanism to eliminate "autoionization" pointing to the production of long-lived strongly correlated two-electron-excited atomic states.
Abstract The process of the Rydberg blockade, which is currently regarded as one of the most promising approaches to quantum computation, can become significantly less effective due to interatomic interactions that shift the excitation frequency of initially blocked particles to the region of resonance with external laser radiation. In this article, we develop an analytical theory of this effect based on a self-consistent model of two Rydberg atoms acting on each other with their dipole electric fields and experiencing a Stark splitting of energy levels under the action of these fields. It follows from our calculations that the typical interatomic distances at which the unblocking effect due to ‘‘parasitic’’ resonances begins to occur are in rough agreement with earlier qualitative estimates; however, the number of such resonances can be much larger than in recent numerical simulations of some particular systems. Therefore, the possibility of breaking the Rydberg blockade at small interatomic distances should be carefully taken into account in any future applications to quantum computing.
Rydberg blockade at $n\ensuremath{\sim}300$, is examined using strontium n1F3n\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{1}F_{3}n1F3​ Rydberg atoms excited in an atomic beam in a small volume defined by two tightly focused crossed laser beams. The observation of blockade for such states is challenging due to their extreme sensitivity to stray fields and the many magnetic sublevels associated with FFF states which results in a high local density of states. Nonetheless, with a careful choice of laser polarization to selectively excite only a limited number of these sublevels, sizable blockade effects are observed on an $\ensuremath{\sim}0.1$ mm length scale extending blockade measurements into the near-macroscopic regime and enabling study of the dynamics of strongly coupled many-body high-nnn Rydberg systems under carefully controlled conditions.
Rydberg atoms of principal quantum number n in a superposition of a harmonic and a slowly varying field pass through several resonances with the harmonic field of frequency ? as the splitting ? of the shell by the slow field varies. These transient resonances which are met when ? N?, where N is an integer, have been studied for the n = 25 shell of Li. Coherent elliptic states were prepared and used as initial states, and the dynamics was probed by the probability Pa for the atom to remain in the initial state. The harmonic field was circularly polarized and had constant amplitude, and the slow field varied such that ? at first decreased, then went through a minimum and finally increased to bring the atoms into resonance at two different times. This led to interference patterns in Pa(?0), where ?0 is the minimum splitting. These were quite regular for coherent elliptic states of low eccentricity e and for strong fields , but less regular for large e and weak . A few states of Li(n = 25) are not hydrogenic due to quantum defects from the (1s)2 core. Without quantum defects the dynamics can be reduced to that of two spin- particles and this reproduces the regular patterns quite well. A full quantal treatment, which is required if quantum defects are important, shows that the more irregular patterns are the result of quite complex dynamics involving non-hydrogenic quasi-eigenstates.