Observation of Rydberg Blockade Due to the Charge-Dipole Interaction between an Atom and a Polar Molecule

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