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Local Blockade of Rydberg Excitation in an Ultracold Gas

D. Tong·S. M. Farooqi·J. Stanojevic·S. Krishnan·Y. P. Zhang·R. Côté·E. E. Eyler·P. L. Gould
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Abstract

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 dependence 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.

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D. Tong, S. M. Farooqi, J. Stanojevic, S. Krishnan, Y. P. Zhang, R. Côté, E. E. Eyler, P. L. Gould. 2004-02-21. Local Blockade of Rydberg Excitation in an Ultracold Gas. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.93.063001

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