Events

Atoms excited in states of large principal quantum number n, so-called Rydberg atoms, are genuinely sensitive to interactions, with van der Waals interaction scaling as n11 and charge-induced dipole as n7. For thisreason, when an impurity-atom mixture is being driven in the configuration of electromagnetically induced

transparency (EIT) involving a Rydberg state |r⟩, long-range interactions between the atoms and impurities lead to very large shifts of the level |r⟩ and induce scattering of the probe light. This effect can be used for shadow imaging of ensembles of Rydberg atoms and ions [1, 2].
In this report, we show how a recent improvement to this technique, making use of homodyne detection with a strong reference beam, allows us to image individual ions in a single shot with only 1 μs exposure time [3]. This technique could be used in the future for studying charge mobility and polaron physics in cold atom-ion hybrid systems. We also demonstrate single-shot imaging of individual Rydberg “superatoms” [4]. Spectroscopic measurements illustrate the state-selectivity of the interaction scheme. With an imaging exposure time of 3 μs, we resolve a linear chain of Rydberg superatoms excited in a one-dimensional configuration. Pair-correlation and Fourier analyses of the images reveal the effect of the dipole blockade and long-range ordering of Rydberg excitations. This imaging technique with minimal destruction will be of great interest for utilizing ensemble-encoded atomic qubits for quantum computation and quantum simulation.

References
[1] G. Günter, H. Schempp, M. Robert-de-Saint-Vincent, V. Gavryusev, S. Helmrich, C. S. Hofmann, S. Whitlock, and M. Weidem¨uller, Science 342, 954 (2013)
[2] C. Gross, T. Vogt, and W. Li, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 053401 (2020)
[3] D. Jinjin, T. Vogt, and W. Li, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 143004 (2023)
[4] D. Jinjin, T. Vogt, and W. Li, Arxiv:2404.00274 (20