Depletion Imaging of Rydberg atoms in cold atomic gases

TL;DR

This paper introduces a depletion imaging method to map the spatial and temporal distribution of Rydberg atoms in ultracold gases, revealing excitation dynamics and the Rydberg blockade effect, with implications for quantum simulation.

Contribution

The study develops a novel depletion imaging technique that preserves Rydberg atoms during imaging and quantitatively models their excitation dynamics using a superatom and Monte Carlo approach.

Findings

Observed saturation of Rydberg density due to blockade effect

Successfully modeled excitation dynamics with superatom and Monte Carlo methods

Inferred three-dimensional Rydberg atom distribution

Abstract

We present a depletion imaging technique to map out the spatial and temporal dependency of the density distribution of an ultracold gas of Rydberg atoms. Locally resolved absorption depletion, observed through differential ground state absorption imaging of a $^{87}\text{Rb}$ cloud in presence and absence of pre-excited Rydberg atoms, reveals their projected two-dimensional distribution. By employing a closed two-level optical transition uncoupled from the Rydberg state, the highly excited atoms are preserved during imaging. We measure the excitation dynamics of the $\vert48S\rangle$ state of $^{87}\text{Rb}$, observing a saturation of the two-dimensional Rydberg density. Such outcome can be explained by the Rydberg blockade effect which prevents resonant excitation of close-by Rydberg atoms due to strong dipolar interactions. By combining the superatom description, where atoms within a blockade radius are represented as collective excitations, with a Monte Carlo sampling, we can quantitatively model the observed excitation dynamics and infer the full three-dimensional distribution of Rydberg atoms, that can serve as a starting point for quantum simulation of many-body dynamics involving Rydberg spin systems.