Steady-state crystallization of Rydberg excitations in an optically driven lattice gas

TL;DR

This paper investigates how resonant optical driving induces steady-state Rydberg excitation patterns in a one-dimensional lattice, revealing conditions for crystalline order and analyzing the dynamics with advanced simulations and models.

Contribution

It demonstrates that three-level excitation schemes can produce finite-range Rydberg crystalline order, expanding understanding of driven dissipative many-body systems.

Findings

Two-level atoms show only nearest neighbor correlations.

Three-level atoms can develop finite-range crystalline order.

Analytic rate equation model qualitatively matches numerical results.

Abstract

We study resonant optical excitations of atoms in a one-dimensional lattice to the Rydberg states interacting via the van der Waals potential which suppresses simultaneous excitation of neighboring atoms. Considering two- and three-level excitation schemes, we analyze the dynamics and stationary state of the continuously-driven, dissipative many-body system employing time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group (t-DMRG) simulations. We show that two-level atoms can exhibit only nearest neighbor correlations, while three-level atoms under dark-state resonant driving can develop finite-range crystalline order of Rydberg excitations. We present an approximate rate equation model whose analytic solution yields qualitative understanding of the numerical results.