Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals

Lan, Zhihao; Li, Weibin; Lesanovsky, Igor

Abstract

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.

Citation

Lan, Z., Li, W., & Lesanovsky, I. (2016). Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals. Physical Review A, 94(5), Article 051603. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.051603

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 25, 2016
• Publication Date: Nov 11, 2016
• Deposit Date: Nov 14, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 14, 2016
• Journal: Physical Review A
• Print ISSN: 2469-9926
• Electronic ISSN: 2469-9934
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 94
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: 051603
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.051603
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/829057
• Publisher URL: http://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.051603
• Additional Information: ©2016 American Physical Society