Atom-pair kinetics with strong electric-dipole interactions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the control and observation of strong electric dipole interactions in Rydberg-atom ensembles, revealing anisotropic forces and many-body dynamics through ion imaging and pair correlation analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a method to adiabatically transform Rydberg atoms into highly dipolar states and probes the resulting anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions using ion microscopy.

Findings

Observation of anisotropic dipolar forces via pair correlation images

Agreement of measured C3 coefficient with theoretical calculations

Identification of many-body dynamics similar to disorder-induced heating

Abstract

Rydberg-atom ensembles are switched from a weakly- into a strongly-interacting regime via adiabatic transformation of the atoms from an approximately non-polar into a highly dipolar quantum state. The resultant electric dipole-dipole forces are probed using a device akin to a field ion microscope. Ion imaging and pair-correlation analysis reveal the kinetics of the interacting atoms. Dumbbell-shaped pair correlation images demonstrate the anisotropy of the binary dipolar force. The dipolar $C_3$ coefficient, derived from the time dependence of the images, agrees with the value calculated from the permanent electric-dipole moment of the atoms. The results indicate many-body dynamics akin to disorder-induced heating in strongly coupled particle systems.