Picosecond-Scale Ultrafast Many-Body Dynamics in an Ultracold Rydberg-Excited Atomic Mott Insulator
Abstract
We report the observation and control of ultrafast many-body dynamics of electrons in ultracold Rydberg-excited atoms, spatially ordered in a three-dimensional Mott insulator (MI) with unity filling in an optical lattice. By mapping out the time-domain Ramsey interferometry in the picosecond timescale, we can deduce entanglement growth indicating the emergence of many-body correlations via dipolar forces. We analyze our observations with different theoretical approaches and find that the semiclassical model breaks down, thus indicating that quantum fluctuations play a decisive role in the observed dynamics. Combining picosecond Rydberg excitation with MI lattice thus provides a platform for simulating nonequilibrium dynamics of strongly correlated systems in synthetic ultracold atomic crystals, such as in a metal-like quantum gas regime.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- September 2023
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.123201
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2201.09590
- Bibcode:
- 2023PhRvL.131l3201B
- Keywords:
-
- Condensed Matter - Quantum Gases;
- Physics - Atomic Physics;
- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 123201 (2023)