Transport on flexible Rydberg aggregates using circular states

TL;DR

This paper investigates the use of circular Rydberg states for quantum transport in flexible Rydberg aggregates, highlighting their potential advantages and practical limitations for quantum simulation and coupled transport phenomena.

Contribution

It demonstrates how circular Rydberg states can be employed for simple transport models and explores their practical limitations and classical descriptions in quantum transport scenarios.

Findings

Circular Rydberg states enable long-lived quantum transport.

Dipole-dipole selection rules facilitate simple transport models.

Classical models can describe interactions among circular Rydberg atoms.

Abstract

Assemblies of interacting Rydberg atoms show promise for the quantum simulation of transport phenomena, quantum chemistry and condensed matter systems. Such schemes are typically limited by the finite lifetime of Rydberg states. Circular Rydberg states have the longest lifetimes among Rydberg states but lack the energetic isolation in the spectrum characteristic of low angular momentum states. The latter is required to obtain simple transport models with few electronic states per atom. Simple models can however even be realized with circular states, by exploiting dipole-dipole selection rules or external fields. We show here that this approach can be particularly fruitful for scenarios where quantum transport is coupled to atomic motion, in adiabatic excitation transport or quantum simulations of electron-phonon coupling in light harvesting. Additionally, we explore practical limitations of flexible Rydberg aggregates with circular states and to which extent interactions among circular Rydberg atoms can be described using classical models.