Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals

We investigate the quantum melting of one-dimensional crystals that are realized in an atomic lattice in which ground state atoms are laser excited to two Rydberg states. We focus on a regime where both, intra- and interstate density-density interactions as well as coherent exchange interactions con...

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Main Authors: Lan, Zhihao, Li, Weibin, Lesanovsky, Igor
Format: Article
Published: American Physical Society 2016
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38691/
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author Lan, Zhihao
Li, Weibin
Lesanovsky, Igor
author_facet Lan, Zhihao
Li, Weibin
Lesanovsky, Igor
author_sort Lan, Zhihao
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We investigate the quantum melting of one-dimensional crystals that are realized in an atomic lattice in which ground state atoms are laser excited to two Rydberg states. We focus on a regime where both, intra- and interstate density-density interactions as well as coherent exchange interactions contribute. We determine stable crystalline phases in the classical limit and explore their melting under quantum fluctuations introduced by the excitation laser as well as two-body exchange. We find that within a specific parameter range quantum fluctuations introduced by the laser can give rise to a devil’s staircase structure which one might associate with transitions in the classical limit. The melting through exchange interactions is shown to also proceed in a steplike fashion, in the case of small crystals, due to the proliferation of Rydberg spin waves.
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spelling nottingham-386912020-05-04T18:21:25Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38691/ Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals Lan, Zhihao Li, Weibin Lesanovsky, Igor We investigate the quantum melting of one-dimensional crystals that are realized in an atomic lattice in which ground state atoms are laser excited to two Rydberg states. We focus on a regime where both, intra- and interstate density-density interactions as well as coherent exchange interactions contribute. We determine stable crystalline phases in the classical limit and explore their melting under quantum fluctuations introduced by the excitation laser as well as two-body exchange. We find that within a specific parameter range quantum fluctuations introduced by the laser can give rise to a devil’s staircase structure which one might associate with transitions in the classical limit. The melting through exchange interactions is shown to also proceed in a steplike fashion, in the case of small crystals, due to the proliferation of Rydberg spin waves. American Physical Society 2016-11-11 Article PeerReviewed Lan, Zhihao, Li, Weibin and Lesanovsky, Igor (2016) Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals. Physical Review A, 94 . 051603/1-051603/6. ISSN 2469-9934 http://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.051603 doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.94.051603 doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.94.051603
spellingShingle Lan, Zhihao
Li, Weibin
Lesanovsky, Igor
Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals
title Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals
title_full Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals
title_fullStr Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals
title_full_unstemmed Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals
title_short Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals
title_sort quantum melting of two-component rydberg crystals
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38691/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38691/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38691/