Asymmetric Rydberg blockade of giant excitons in Cuprous Oxide

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the generation and control of strong, long-range interactions between Rydberg excitons in cuprous oxide, revealing large-distance correlations and an extended Rydberg blockade effect in a solid-state system.

Contribution

It introduces a method to generate and probe two distinct Rydberg exciton states in cuprous oxide, revealing extended-range interactions and universal many-body properties.

Findings

Observation of Rydberg blockade over several micrometers

Detection of strong spatial correlations among excitons

Evidence of universal interaction-dependent properties

Abstract

The ability to generate and control strong long-range interactions via highly excited electronic states has been the foundation for recent breakthroughs in a host of areas, from atomic and molecular physics [1, 2] to quantum optics [3, 4] and technology [5-7]. Rydberg excitons provide a promising solid-state realization of such highly excited states, for which record-breaking orbital sizes of up to a micrometer have indeed been observed in cuprous oxide semiconductors [8]. Here, we demonstrate the generation and control of strong exciton interactions in this material by optically producing two distinct quantum states of Rydberg excitons. This makes two-color pump-probe experiments possible that allow for a detailed probing of the interactions. Our experiments reveal the emergence of strong spatial correlations and an inter-state Rydberg blockade that extends over remarkably large distances of several micrometers. The generated many-body states of semiconductor excitons exhibit universal properties that only depend on the shape of the interaction potential and yield clear evidence for its vastly extended-range and power-law character.