Many-body physics of Rydberg dark-state polaritons in the strongly interacting regime

作者:Moos Matthias*; Heoning Michael; Unanyan Razmik; Fleischhauer Michael
来源:Physical Review A, 2015, 92(5): 053846.
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.92.053846

摘要

Coupling light to Rydberg states of atoms under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) leads to the formation of interacting quasiparticles, termed Rydberg polaritons. We derive a one-dimensional model describing the time evolution of these polaritons under paraxial propagation conditions. Specifically, we obtain a master equation governing the dynamics of Rydberg polaritons and identify conditions when it can essentially be described by an effective Hamiltonian of a single-species polariton. We verify this Hamiltonian by numerical two-excitation simulations. Under typical stationary EIT conditions it is impossible to reach the strongly interacting regime where long-range density-density correlations emerge. In contrast, by employing the time dependence of the control field the regime of strong interactions can be reached where the polaritons attain quasicrystalline order. We provide a physical explanation for the differences between stationary and time-dependent schemes.

  • 出版日期2015-11-19