Microwaves Probe Dipole Blockade and van der Waals Forces in a Cold Rydberg Gas

We show that microwave spectroscopy of a dense Rydberg gas trapped on a superconducting atom chip in the dipole blockade regime reveals directly the dipole-dipole many-body interaction energy spectrum. We use this method to investigate the expansion of the Rydberg cloud under the effect of repulsive...

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Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 115; no. 1; p. 013001
Main Authors Teixeira, R Celistrino, Hermann-Avigliano, C, Nguyen, T L, Cantat-Moltrecht, T, Raimond, J M, Haroche, S, Gleyzes, S, Brune, M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 03.07.2015
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Summary:We show that microwave spectroscopy of a dense Rydberg gas trapped on a superconducting atom chip in the dipole blockade regime reveals directly the dipole-dipole many-body interaction energy spectrum. We use this method to investigate the expansion of the Rydberg cloud under the effect of repulsive van der Waals forces and the breakdown of the frozen gas approximation. This study opens a promising route for quantum simulation of many-body systems and quantum information transport in chains of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.013001