Rydberg atoms have recently emerged as a prominent platform for developing various quantum technologies, including quantum simulation and computation, quantum nonlinear conversion, quantum sensing. The essential element enabling the high degree of control and manipulation at the single-particle level in these systems is the strong long-range interaction between Rydberg atoms. The resulting excitation blockade effect is an important resource for quantum applications.

More specifically, Rydberg energy levels of atoms are genuinely sensitive to van der Waals and dipole-charge interactions, which scale with principal quantum number as and with distance as , respectively. In the dissipative regime, capitalizing on the scattering effect induced by these long-range interactions, we employ electromagnetically induced transparency for fast in-situ imaging of individual ions and Rydberg superatoms in a single shot with an exposure time on the order of ~1 μs. Such sensitivity is reached by making use of homodyne detection and amplification of Van der Waals interactions in the proximity of molecular Förster resonances. With this technique, 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 Rydberg qubits for quantum computation and quantum simulation. 
 

References

[1] C. Gross, T. Vogt, and W. Li, Ion Imaging via Long-Range Interaction with Rydberg Atoms, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 053401 (2020)

[2] D. Jinjin, T. Vogt, and W. Li, Fast Single-shot Imaging of Individual Ions via Homodyne Detection of Rydberg Blockade Induced Absorption, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 143004 (2023).