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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 104 » Issue 22
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 223002 (2010) [4 pages]

Strongly Correlated Gases of Rydberg-Dressed Atoms: Quantum and Classical Dynamics

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G. Pupillo1, A. Micheli1, M. Boninsegni2,1, I. Lesanovsky3, and P. Zoller1
1Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, and Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Innsbruck, Austria
2Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2J1
3School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Received 4 January 2010; published 1 June 2010

We discuss techniques to generate long-range interactions in a gas of ground state alkali atoms, by weakly admixing excited Rydberg states with laser light. This provides a tool to engineer strongly correlated phases with reduced decoherence from inelastic collisions and spontaneous emission. As an illustration, we discuss the quantum phases of dressed atoms with dipole-dipole interactions confined in a harmonic potential, as relevant to experiments. We show that residual spontaneous emission from the Rydberg state acts as a heating mechanism, leading to a quantum-classical crossover.

© 2010 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.223002
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.223002
PACS:
32.80.Ee, 03.75.-b, 34.20.Cf
 
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