Kinetic Monte Carlo modeling of dipole blockade in Rydberg excitation experiment

We present a method to model the interaction and the dynamics of atoms excited to Rydberg states. We show a way to solve the optical Bloch equations for laser excitation of the frozen gas in good agreement with the experiment. A second method, the kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method, gives an exact solution of rate equations. Using a simple N-body integrator (Verlet), we are able to describe dynamic processes in space and time. Unlike more sophisticated methods, the KMC simulation offers the possibility of numerically following the evolution of tens of thousands of atoms within a reasonable computation time. The KMC simulation gives good agreement with dipole-blockade type of experiment. The role of ions and the individual particle effects are investigated.