Quantum phases of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms in triangular lattices

TL;DR

This paper explores the complex quantum phases of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms arranged in a triangular lattice, revealing chaotic dynamics and bi-antiferromagnetic properties through mean-field and quantum calculations.

Contribution

It introduces a combined mean-field and quantum approach to analyze exotic quantum phases and chaos in Rydberg atom systems on triangular lattices.

Findings

Chaotic dynamics with random oscillations in strong-interaction regimes.

Bi-antiferromagnetic properties in triangular cells at specific detunings.

Lyapunov exponent confirms chaos in the system.

Abstract

We present a theoretical study on the system of laser-driven strongly interacting Rydberg atoms trapped in a two-dimensional triangular lattice, in which the dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg states result in exotic quantum phases. By using the mean-field theory, we investigate the steady state solutions and analyze their dynamical stabilities. We find that in the strong-interaction limit, the dynamics of the system is chaotic and exhibits random oscillations under appropriate laser detunings. Lyapunov exponent criterion is introduced to confirm the existence of this chaotic behavior. In addition, we present a full quantum calculation based on a six-atom model, and find that the system exhibits some bi-antiferromagnetic properties in every triangular cell when the one-photon detuning is exactly resonant or blue-shifted.