From coherent collective excitation to Rydberg blockade on an atom chip

Julius de Hond; Rick van Bijnen; S. J. J. M. F. Kokkelmans; R. J. C. Spreeuw; H. B. van Linden van den Heuvell; N. J. van Druten

doi:10.1103/physreva.98.062714

arXiv · 1810.04532

From coherent collective excitation to Rydberg blockade on an atom chip

Julius de Hond·Rick van Bijnen·S. J. J. M. F. Kokkelmans·R. J. C. Spreeuw·H. B. van Linden van den Heuvell·N. J. van Druten

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Abstract

Using time-resolved measurements, we demonstrate coherent collective Rydberg excitation crossing over into Rydberg blockade in a dense and ultracold gas trapped at a distance of 100 $\mu$m from a room-temperature atom chip. We perform Ramsey-type measurements to characterize the coherence. The experimental data are in good agreement with numerical results from a master equation using a mean-field approximation, and with results from a super-atom-based Hamiltonian. These results represent significant progress in exploring a strongly interacting driven Rydberg gas on an atom chip.

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Julius de Hond, Rick van Bijnen, S. J. J. M. F. Kokkelmans, R. J. C. Spreeuw, H. B. van Linden van den Heuvell, N. J. van Druten. 2018-10-10. From coherent collective excitation to Rydberg blockade on an atom chip. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.98.062714

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