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Published on: March 30, 2017
Microwaves Probe Dipole Blockade and van der Waals Forces in a Cold Rydberg Gas
R Celistrino Teixeira1, C Hermann-Avigliano1, T L Nguyen1
1Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Collège de France, CNRS, ENS-PSL Research University, UPMC-Sorbonne Universités, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France.
Abstract:
We show that microwave spectroscopy of a dense Rydberg gas trapped on a superconducting atom chip in the dipole blockade regime reveals directly the dipole-dipole many-body interaction energy spectrum. We use this method to investigate the expansion of the Rydberg cloud under the effect of repulsive van der Waals forces and the breakdown of the frozen gas approximation. This study opens a promising route for quantum simulation of many-body systems and quantum information transport in chains of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms.
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