Realization of a Rydberg-dressed extended Bose Hubbard model

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental realization of a Rydberg-dressed extended Bose-Hubbard model in a one-dimensional optical lattice, enabling the study of correlated dynamics and non-local order in quantum many-body systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates the first successful implementation of Rydberg-dressed interactions in an itinerant Bose-Hubbard system, overcoming previous experimental challenges.

Findings

Observation of density ordering near equilibrium

Probing of correlated out-of-equilibrium dynamics

Demonstration of extended-range interaction effects

Abstract

The competition of different length scales in quantum many-body systems leads to various novel phenomena, including the emergence of correlated dynamics or non-local order. To access and investigate such effects in an itinerant lattice-based quantum simulator, it has been proposed to introduce tunable extended-range interactions using off-resonant optical coupling to Rydberg states. However, experimental realizations of such "Rydberg dressing" have so far mostly concentrated on spin systems without motion. Here, we overcome a number of experimental challenges limiting previous work and realize an effective one-dimensional extended Bose-Hubbard model (eBHM). Harnessing our quantum gas microscope, we probe the correlated out-of-equilibrium dynamics of extended-range repulsively-bound pairs at low filling, and kinetically-constrained "hard rods" at half filling. Near equilibrium, we observe density ordering when adiabatically turning on the extended-range interactions. Our results demonstrate the versatility of Rydberg dressing in engineering itinerant optical lattice-based quantum simulators and pave the way to realizing novel light-controlled extended-range interacting quantum many-body systems.