481 research outputs found
Dynamical Crystallization in the Dipole Blockade of Ultracold Atoms
We describe a method for controlling many-body states in extended ensembles
of Rydberg atoms, forming crystalline structures during laser excitation of a
frozen atomic gas. Specifically, we predict the existence of an excitation
number staircase in laser excitation of atomic ensembles into Rydberg states.
Each step corresponds to a crystalline state with a well-defined of regularly
spaced Rydberg atoms. We show that such states can be selectively excited by
chirped laser pulses. Finally, we demonstarte that, sing quantum state transfer
from atoms to light, such crystals can be used to create crystalline photonic
states and can be probed via photon correlation measurements
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