Rabi oscillations and entanglement between two atoms interacting by the Rydberg blockade studied by the Jaynes-Cummings Model

TL;DR

This paper extends the Jaynes-Cummings model to analyze Rabi oscillations and entanglement between two Rydberg atoms interacting via the Rydberg blockade and a quantized radiation field, with implications for quantum communication.

Contribution

It introduces a model for two Rydberg atoms with blockade interaction coupled to a quantized field, exploring entanglement and dynamics beyond the standard Tavis-Cummings framework.

Findings

Different entanglement behaviors compared to non-interacting atoms.

Significant differences in system dynamics due to Rydberg blockade.

Relevance for atom-light interfaces in quantum communication.

Abstract

The interaction between atoms and a quantized radiation field is fundamentally important in quantum optics and quantum information science. Due to their unusual properties, Rydberg atoms are promising building blocks for two-qubit gates and atom-light quantum interfaces, exploiting the Rydberg blockade interaction, which prevents two atoms at close distance from being simultaneously excited to Rydberg states. Recently, this effect was used to engineer quantum processors based on arrays of interacting Rydberg atoms illuminated by Raman lasers. Motivated by these experiments, we extend the Jaynes-Cummings model to study the interaction between two Rydberg atoms interacting by the Rydberg blockade and a quantized radiation field. We consider both number (Fock) states of the field and single-mode quantum coherent states. In particular, we discuss different types of entanglements between various components of the total system consisting of the two Rydberg-interacting atoms and coherent states of the field, and show that the behavior is significantly different compared to a system with non-interacting atoms corresponding to the two-atom Tavis-Cummings model. Our results are relevant in view of atom-light quantum interfaces as components for future long-distance quantum communication.