Observation of Rydberg Blockade Due to the Charge-Dipole Interaction between an Atom and a Polar Molecule
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Show full item recordEditorial
American Physical Society
Date
2023-07-07Referencia bibliográfica
Guttridge, A., Ruttley, D. K., Baldock, A. C., González-Férez, R., Sadeghpour, H. R., Adams, C. S., & Cornish, S. L. (2023). Observation of Rydberg blockade due to the charge-dipole interaction between an atom and a polar molecule. Physical Review Letters, 131(1), 013401.[DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.013401]
Sponsorship
Junta de Andalucia A-FQM-52-UGR20; UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) EP/P01058X/1 EP/V047302/1 EP/W00299X/1; UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Frontier Research EP/X023354/1; Royal Society; Durham University; MICIN PID2020-113390 GB-I00; Junta de Andalucia PY20-00082; ERDF-University of Granada A-FQM-52-UGR20; Andalusian Research Group FQM-207; National Science Foundation (NSF)Abstract
We demonstrate Rydberg blockade due to the charge-dipole interaction between a single Rb atom and a
single RbCs molecule confined in optical tweezers. The molecule is formed by magnetoassociation of a
Rb þ Cs atom pair and subsequently transferred to the rovibrational ground state with an efficiency of
91(1)%. Species-specific tweezers are used to control the separation between the atom and molecule. The
charge-dipole interaction causes blockade of the transition to the Rb(52s) Rydberg state, when the atommolecule
separation is set to 310(40) nm. The observed excitation dynamics are in good agreement with
simulations using calculated interaction potentials. Our results open up the prospect of a hybrid platform
where quantum information is transferred between individually trapped molecules using Rydberg atoms