Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 063001 (2004) [4 pages]Local Blockade of Rydberg Excitation in an Ultracold GasReceived 15 February 2004; published 3 August 2004 In the laser excitation of ultracold atoms to Rydberg states, we observe a dramatic suppression caused by van der Waals interactions. This behavior is interpreted as a local excitation blockade: Rydberg atoms strongly inhibit excitation of their neighbors. We measure suppression, relative to isolated atom excitation, by up to a factor of 6.4. The dependences of this suppression on both laser irradiance and atomic density are in good agreement with a mean-field model. These results are an important step towards using ultracold Rydberg atoms in quantum information processing. © 2004 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.063001
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.063001
PACS:
32.80.Rm, 03.67.Lx, 34.20.Cf
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