Realizing distance-selective interactions in a Rydberg-dressed atom array
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 128, 113602 - Published 14 March 2022
Exciting ultracold atoms into highly-excited Rydberg states extends the cold atom toolbox by long-range interactions.
Rydberg macrodimers - electrostatically bound Rydberg atom pairs - provide bond lengths as large as the distances between different lattice sites in an optical lattice. Optical excitation rates of macrodimers are enhanced if the distance and orientation of the prepared ground state atom pairs match the motional state of the macrodimer state and are suppressed otherwise.
Here, we engineer distance-selective interactions between ground-state atoms that are strongly peaked in distance through off-resonant laser coupling of macrodimer binding potentials. Employing quantum gas microscopy, we verify the dressed interactions by observing correlated phase evolution using many-body Ramsey interferometry. We identify atom loss and coupling to continuum modes as a limitation of our present scheme and outline paths to mitigate these effects. In future experiments with improved coherence times, this technique may allow for the realization of cluster states in a single massive entanglement operation.
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