Dynamical preparation of laser-excited anisotropic Rydberg crystals in 2D optical lattices

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to dynamically create anisotropic Rydberg crystal phases in 2D optical lattices by laser excitation, using a variational mean field approach and numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a time-dependent variational mean field model for large 2D systems to simulate the formation of anisotropic Rydberg crystals.

Findings

Successful modeling of anisotropic Rydberg crystal formation

Numerical simulations demonstrate dynamical crystallization

Applicable to experimentally accessible parameters

Abstract

We describe the dynamical preparation of anisotropic crystalline phases obtained by laser-exciting ultracold Alkali atoms to Rydberg p-states where they interact via anisotropic van der Waals interactions. We develop a time- dependent variational mean field ansatz to model large, but finite two-dimensional systems in experimentally accessible parameter regimes, and we present numerical simulations to illustrate the dynamical formation of anisotropic Rydberg crystals.