Strongly correlated gases of Rydberg-dressed atoms: quantum and classical dynamics.
We discuss techniques to generate long-range interactions in a gas of ground state alkali atoms, by weakly admixing excited Rydberg states with laser light. This provides a tool to engineer strongly correlated phases with reduced decoherence from inelastic collisions and spontaneous emission. As an illustration, we discuss the quantum phases of dressed atoms with dipole-dipole interactions confined in a harmonic potential, as relevant to experiments. We show that residual spontaneous emission from the Rydberg state acts as a heating mechanism, leading to a quantum-classical crossover.
Pupillo
G
G
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
Micheli
A
A
Boninsegni
M
M
Lesanovsky
I
I
Zoller
P
P