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Direct measurement of the van der Waals interaction between two single atoms

Lucas Béguin, Aline Vernier, Sylvain Ravets, Henning Labuhn, Radu Chicireanu, Thierry Lahaye, Antoine Browaeys

Published Jun 3, 2012• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We report on the direct measurement of the van der Waals interaction between two isolated, single Rydberg atoms separated by a controlled distance of a few micrometers. By working in a regime where the single-atom Rabi frequency of the laser used for excitation to the Rydberg state is comparable to the interaction energy, we observe a \emph{partial} Rydberg blockade, whereby the time-dependent populations of the various two-atom states exhibit coherent oscillations with several frequencies. A quantitative comparison of the data with a simple model based on the optical Bloch equations allows us to extract the van der Waals energy, and to observe its characteristic $C_6/R^6$ dependence. The magnitude of the measured $C_6$ coefficient agrees well with an \emph{ab-initio} theoretical calculation, and we observe its dramatic increase with the principal quantum number $n$ of the Rydberg state. Our results not only allow to test an important physical law, but also demonstrate a degree of experimental control which opens new perspectives in quantum information processing and quantum simulation using long-range interactions between the atoms.

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We report on the direct measurement of the van der Waals interaction between two isolated, single Rydberg atoms separated by a controlled distance of a few micrometers. By working in a regime where the single-atom Rabi frequency of the laser used for excitation to the Rydberg state is comparable to the interaction energy, we observe a \emph{partial} Rydberg blockade, whereby the time-dependent populations of the various two-atom states exhibit coherent oscillations with several frequencies. A quantitative comparison of the data with a simple model based on the optical Bloch equations allows us to extract the van der Waals energy, and to observe its characteristic C6/R6C_6/R^6C6​/R6 dependence. The magnitude of the measured C6C_6C6​ coefficient agrees well with an \emph{ab-initio} theoretical calculation, and we observe its dramatic increase with the principal quantum number nnn of the Rydberg state. Our results not only allow to test an important physical law, but also demonstrate a degree of experimental control which opens new perspectives in quantum information processing and quantum simulation using long-range interactions between the atoms.
We report the direct measurement of the van der Waals interaction between two isolated, single Rydberg atoms separated by a controlled distance of a few micrometers. Working in a regime where the single-atom Rabi frequency for excitation to the Rydberg state is comparable to the interaction, we observe partial Rydberg blockade, whereby the time-dependent populations of the various two-atom states exhibit coherent oscillations with several frequencies. Quantitative comparison of the data with a simple model based on the optical Bloch equations allows us to extract the van der Waals energy, and observe its characteristic C6/R6 dependence. The measured C6 coefficients agree well with ab initio calculations, and we observe their dramatic increase with the principal quantum number n of the Rydberg state.
We report the direct measurement of the van der Waals interaction between two isolated, single Rydberg atoms separated by a controlled distance of a few micrometers.Working in a regime where the single-atom Rabi frequency for excitation to the Rydberg state is comparable to the interaction, we observe partial Rydberg blockade, whereby the time-dependent populations of the various two-atom states exhibit coherent oscillations with several frequencies.Quantitative comparison of the data with a simple model based on the optical Bloch equations allows us to extract the van der Waals energy, and observe its characteristic C 6 =R 6 dependence.The measured C 6 coefficients agree well with ab initio calculations, and we observe their dramatic increase with the principal quantum number n of the Rydberg state.
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.
We present a detailed analysis of our recent observation of synchronous Rabi oscillations between the electronic ground state and Rydberg states in a mesoscopic ensemble containing roughly 100 ultracold atoms (Reetz-Lamour et al submitted, Preprint 0711.4321). The mesoscopic cloud is selected out of a sample of laser-cooled Rb atoms by optical pumping. The atoms are coupled to a Rydberg state with principal quantum number around 30 by a two-photon scheme employing flat-top laser beams. The influence of residual spatial intensity fluctuations as well as sources of decoherence such as redistribution to other states, radiative lifetime and laser bandwidth are analysed. The results open up new possibilities for the investigation of coherent many-body phenomena in dipolar Rydberg gases. As an example we demonstrate the van der Waals blockade, a variant of the dipole blockade, for a mesoscopic atom sample.
We present a detailed analysis of our recent observation of synchronous Rabi oscillations between the electronic ground state and Rydberg states in a mesoscopic ensemble containing roughly 100 ultracold atoms (Reetz-Lamour et al submitted, Preprint 0711.4321). The mesoscopic cloud is selected out of a sample of laser-cooled Rb atoms by optical pumping. The atoms are coupled to a Rydberg state with principal quantum number around 30 by a two-photon scheme employing flat-top laser beams. The influence of residual spatial intensity fluctuations as well as sources of decoherence such as redistribution to other states, radiative lifetime and laser bandwidth are analysed. The results open up new possibilities for the investigation of coherent many-body phenomena in dipolar Rydberg gases. As an example we demonstrate the van der Waals blockade, a variant of the dipole blockade, for a mesoscopic atom sample.