title: Coherent excitation transfer in a spin chain of three Rydberg atoms.
abstract: We study coherent excitation hopping in a spin chain realized using highly excited individually addressable Rydberg atoms. The dynamics are fully described in terms of an XY spin Hamiltonian with a long range resonant dipole-dipole coupling that scales as the inverse third power of the lattice spacing, C(3)/R(3). The experimental data demonstrate the importance of next neighbor interactions which are manifest as revivals in the excitation dynamics. The results suggest that arrays of Rydberg atoms are ideally suited to large scale, high-fidelity quantum simulation of spin dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, UMR 8501, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud 11, 2 avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barredo
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, UMR 8501, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud 11, 2 avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Labuhn
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, UMR 8501, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud 11, 2 avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ravets
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, UMR 8501, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud 11, 2 avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lahaye
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, UMR 8501, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud 11, 2 avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Browaeys
authors.affiliation: Joint Quantum Centre (JQC) Durham-Newcastle, Department of Physics, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Adams