Optical control of the resonant dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg atoms (poster)

Antoine Browaeys

Antoine Browaeys

Thierry Lahaye

Grant W. Biedermann

Quantum Information Processing with Rydberg-Dressed Atoms• Ground state neutral atoms allow for precise and robust single-qubit control.(Check out Univeristy of Arizona's posters 38 and 41 for specific examples!)• Interactions between ground state neutrals are very weak, making it hard to create 2-qubit interactions.• By dressing ground state neutrals with Rydberg (large-n) states, we can access dipole-dipole interactions that are orders of magnitude stronger.• Specifically, we use weak, off-resonant coupling to the Rydberg state to mediate a strong two-qubit interaction via the Rydberg blockade.

P. Maenner, Thomas J. Carroll, Michael W. Noel

Paul Méhaignerie, Yohann Machu, Andrés Durán Hernández +5 more

Circular Rydberg atoms (CRAs), i.e., Rydberg atoms with maximal orbital momentum, ideally combine long coherence times and strong interactions, a key property of quantum systems, in particular for the development of quantum technologies. However, the dipole-dipole interaction between CRAs has not been observed so far. We report the measurement and characterization of the resonant dipole-dipole interaction between two CRAs, individually trapped in optical tweezers, and find excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. We demonstrate a dynamic control over the strength of the interaction by tuning the orientation of an electric field. We use the interaction between the CRAs as a meter for the interatomic distance, and record the relative motion between two atoms in their traps. This motion, that we induce through the interaction between Rydberg levels with permanent electric dipoles, transiently populated during the preparation of the circular states, is a signature of spin-motion coupling.