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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Simulation of a strong van der Waals blockade in a dense ultracold gas

J V Hernández, F. Robicheaux

Published Feb 11, 2008• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report on simulations involving the blockade effect on a dense ultracold gas. The blockade effect is seen when the interaction energy between two excited Rydberg atoms is large enough to shift the two-excitation state out of resonance. In this paper we investigate a system that exhibits a strong van der Waals blockade, where only one out of thousands of atoms can be excited per blockade volume. With such a high number of atoms blockaded, the collective oscillation rate of an ensemble of atoms is much faster than the single atom oscillation rate. We examine the effects of this high density and the effects of a non-uniform density distribution as commonly seen in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). We use three different models and compare them to recent experimental data. The agreement between theory and experiment, although qualitative, suggests that the non-uniformity of the density within a blockade region presents a new challenge to theoretical models.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/41/4/045301

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We report on simulations involving the blockade effect on a dense ultracold gas. The blockade effect is seen when the interaction energy between two excited Rydberg atoms is large enough to shift the two-excitation state out of resonance. In this paper we investigate a system that exhibits a strong van der Waals blockade, where only one out of thousands of atoms can be excited per blockade volume. With such a high number of atoms blockaded, the collective oscillation rate of an ensemble of atoms is much faster than the single atom oscillation rate. We examine the effects of this high density and the effects of a non-uniform density distribution as commonly seen in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). We use three different models and compare them to recent experimental data. The agreement between theory and experiment, although qualitative, suggests that the non-uniformity of the density within a blockade region presents a new challenge to theoretical models.
We report on simulations involving the blockade effect on a dense ultracold gas. The blockade effect is seen when the interaction energy between two excited Rydberg atoms is large enough to shift the two-excitation state out of resonance. In this paper we investigate a system that exhibits a strong van der Waals blockade, where only one out of thousands of atoms can be excited per blockade volume. With such a high number of atoms blockaded, the collective oscillation rate of an ensemble of atoms is much faster than the single atom oscillation rate. We examine the effects of this high density and the effects of a non-uniform density distribution as commonly seen in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). We use three different models and compare them to recent experimental data. The agreement between theory and experiment, although qualitative, suggests that the non-uniformity of the density within a blockade region presents a new challenge to theoretical models.
We report on strong van der Waals blockade in two-photon Rydberg excitation of ultracold magnetically trapped 87Rb atoms. The excitation dynamics was investigated for a large range of densities and laser intensities and shows a full saturation and a strong suppression with respect to single-atom behavior. The observed scaling of the initial increase with density and laser intensity provides evidence for coherent collective excitation. This coherent collective behavior, that was observed for up to several thousand atoms per blockade volume, is generic for all mesoscopic systems which are able to carry only one single quantum of excitation.
Rydberg atoms have experimentally interestingproperties such as strong long-range Van der Waals interactions and the dipole blockade effect. In optical lattices the blockade effect ensures that only one Rydberg excitation per site is allowed, effectively creating a Rydberg crystal. We theoretically show that it is also possible for a one-dimensional Rydberg crystal to spontaneously form in a random ensemble of atoms, e.g. a magneto-optical trap. This is done using an existing Monte Carlo model [1] to simulate the excitation dynamics inside the intersection of two lasers for a two-step excitation scheme. With a blue-detuned laser for the upper transition, the first Rydberg excitation will occur after a relatively long time. That first Rydberg atom will then seed further Rydberg excitations, as the blockade effect shifts atoms at a certain distance into resonance. If two dimensions of the laser intersection are smaller than the blockade radius, a one-dimensional Rydberg crystal will form.
We study the Rydberg blockade in a system of three atoms arranged in different two-dimensional geometries (linear and triangular configurations). In the strong blockade regime, we observe high-contrast, coherent collective oscillations of the single excitation probability and an almost perfect van der Waals blockade. Our data are consistent with a total population in doubly and triply excited states below 2%. In the partial blockade regime, we directly observe the anisotropy of the van der Waals interactions between |nD> Rydberg states in the triangular configuration. A simple model that only uses independently measured two-body van der Waals interactions fully reproduces the dynamics of the system without any adjustable parameter. These results are extremely promising for scalable quantum information processing and quantum simulation with neutral atoms.
New phenomena have been observed by exciting ultracold ground-state atoms to Rydberg states. Starting with a dense sample of Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap, we excite them to high Rydberg states (n = 30 - 90) with a single UV excitation pulse. Long-range molecular resonances with interatomic distances exceeding 104 a0 have been discovered. We have also observed the Rydberg excitation blockade, crucial for the implementation of quantum phase gates using neutral atoms. The physics behind these observations is attributed to the strong long-range van der Waals interactions among the Rydberg atoms. In addition, we have seen dipole (E1) forbidden but quadrupole (E2) allowed 5s → nd transitions, allowing us to determine the E2 oscillator strengths to these high Rydberg states. Our narrow-band UV pulsed laser system, with ∼100 MHz bandwidth, also allows us to measure the ratios of j-dependent oscillator strengths to the p and d Rydberg states. ^