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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Dipole–dipole interactions in a hot atomic vapor and in an ultracold gas of Rydberg atoms

Vladimir A. Sautenkov, Sergey A. Saakyan, Sergey Ya. Bronin, A. B. Klyarfeld, Boris B. Zelener, B. V. Zelener

Published Jan 1, 2018• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In our paper ideal and non-ideal gas media of neutral atoms are analyzed. The first we discuss a dipole broadening of atomic transitions in excited dilute and dense metal vapors. Then the theoretical studies of the dipole–dipole interactions in dense ultracold gas of Rydberg atoms are considered. Possible future experiments on a base of our experimental arrangement are suggested.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/946/1/012127

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•Jan 1, 2014•0 citations
In our paper ideal and non-ideal gas media of neutral atoms are analyzed. The first we discuss a dipole broadening of atomic transitions in excited dilute and dense metal vapors. Then the theoretical studies of the dipole–dipole interactions in dense ultracold gas of Rydberg atoms are considered. Possible future experiments on a base of our experimental arrangement are suggested.
In cold dense Rydberg atom samples, the dipole-dipole interaction strength is effectively resonant at the typical interatomic spacing in the sample, and the interaction has a 1/R3 dependence on interatomic spacing R. The dipole-dipole attraction leads to ionizing collisions of initially stationary atoms, which produces hot atoms and ions and initiates the evolution of initially cold samples of neutral Rydberg atoms into plasmas. More generally, the strong dipole-dipole forces lead to motion, which must be considered in proposed applications.
In this paper, our experimental studies of dipole-dipole interactions in excited resonance gases are discussed. In weakly excited gas the dipole broadening of optical transitions is proportional to its density N. A gas medium can be identified by its density N as rarefied gas, where dipole broadening of atomic transitions is much less than Doppler width, or as dense gas, where dipole broadening is much more than Doppler width. According to our experiments the dipole broadening in rarefied gas does not depend on the optical excitation. This behavior is in a good agreement with predictions of standard theory for impact atomic collisions. In excited dense gas we observed the strong reduction of the dipole broadening. These experimental results are not described by standard theory for impact collisions. We suggested a simple description of the optical properties for excited dense gas.
Rydberg atoms, characterized by their strong and long-range dipole-dipole interactions, provide a versatile platform for exploring intriguing collective and many-body effects. Recently, the experimental realization of these effects in dense ensembles and reconfigurable atomic arrays has attracted significant interest, particularly for applications in quantum simulations and non-equilibrium physics. This review focuses on such recent development, discussing the theoretical foundations of the interactions between Rydberg atoms and the ensuing many-body physics, while providing a critical survey of experimental techniques for their precise manipulation and observation. We further discuss recent breakthroughs in leveraging Rydberg collective effects to probe novel many-body phases and non-equilibrium dynamics of these systems. By synthesizing theoretical insights with experimental milestones, we provide a comprehensive perspective on this rapidly evolving field and its transformative potential for future quantum technologies.
We review here the studies performed about interactions in an assembly of cold Rydberg atoms. We focus especially on the review of the dipole–dipole interactions and on the effect of the dipole blockade in the laser Rydberg excitation, which offers attractive possibilities for quantum engineering. We present first the various interactions between Rydberg atoms. The laser Rydberg excitation of such an assembly is then described with the introduction of the dipole blockade phenomenon. We report recent experiments performed in this subject by starting with the case of a pair of atoms allowing the entanglement of the wave-functions of the atoms and opening a fascinating way for the realization of quantum bits and quantum gates. We consider then several works on the blockade effect in a large assembly of atoms for three different configurations: blockade through electric-field induced dipole, through Förster resonance, and in van der Waals interaction. The properties of coherence and cooperativity are analyzed. Finally, we treat the role of dipole–dipole interactions between Rydberg atoms responsible for Penning ionization. The perturbation of the dipole blockade by ions and the evolution of the Rydberg towards an ultracold plasma are discussed.
The possibility of experimental creation of a system of Rydberg atoms with an arbitrary probability distribution of their dipole moments is shown. The equation of state is calculated by the Monte Carlo method in the NVT ensemble for two options of the distribution: isotropic distribution and distribution for the system of identical dipoles. Critical parameters of the phase transition and the binodal are determined in both cases. Critical temperatures for both options virtually coincide. However, critical density for isotropic distribution is 20 times higher. It is shown that the absence of spatial separation in the region of coexistence of dense and dilute phases is a specific feature of the phase transition in dipole systems, and such absence of separation is due to the topological features of clusters of the dense phase. Areas of parameters for the experimental observation of the self-organisation of ultracold Rydberg atoms on the existing experimental stands are determined.
The dipole-dipole interaction strongly couples ultracold highly excited atoms, known as Rydberg atoms, and is the dominant mechanism for energy exchange among such atoms on microsecond time scales. I present the results of experiments that investigate this interaction using rubidium atoms excited to Rydberg states with an all-diode laser system. In the first of these, high resolution dipole-dipole interaction spectra for different magnetic sublevels of the 32d5/2 state are collected and analyzed. In the second experiment, ultracold rubidium atoms are implusively excited to coherent superpositions of three closely spaced |mj|sublevels of the 32d5/2 state in a weak electric field. The magnitude of the field sets the energy level spacing between these states, and hence the frequency of the phase dependent oscillations resulting from interference in resonant energy exchange processes. In the third experiment, the dipole-dipole interaction induced resonant energy exchange between columns of ultracold rubidium Rydberg atoms is imaged using a new technique involving selective field ionization with a spatially sensitive ion detector.