Imperfect blockade in Rydberg superatoms

TL;DR

This paper develops a scalable, first-principles model for Rydberg superatoms, enabling accurate predictions of their quantum performance and guiding experimental efforts in quantum network applications.

Contribution

The authors derive a physically informative, scalable model for Rydberg superatoms and validate it against numerical and experimental data, advancing the understanding of their interactions.

Findings

Model accurately predicts gate fidelities

Model matches experimental photon emission data

Enables scalable simulation of large superatom ensembles

Abstract

Ensembles of atoms interacting via their Rydberg levels, known as "superatoms" for their ability to encode qubits and to emit single photons, attract increasing attention as building blocks for quantum network nodes. Assessing their performance requires an accurate, physically informative and numerically scalable description of interactions in a large and disordered ensemble. We derive such a description from first principles and successfully test it against brute-force numerics and experimental data. This model proves essential to make quantitative predictions about gate fidelities or photon emission efficiencies, and to guide experiments towards large-scale superatom-based systems.