Observing dipole-mediated energy transport dynamics of Rydberg impurities
Dr. Shannon Whitlock (Univ. Heidelberg)

Interfacing laser light with electronically highly excited (Rydberg) atoms produces new hybrid states of atoms and photons and provides the possibility to engineer synthetic systems for simulating coherent-quantum and open-system many-body dynamics. Rydberg atoms experience quantum state changing interactions similar to Förster processes in complex molecules, offering a model system to study the nature of dipole-mediated energy transport under the influence of a controlled environment. We report on a new imaging method, which we apply to monitor the migration of electronic excitations with high time and spatial resolution using electromagnetically induced transparency on a background gas acting as an amplifier. The many-body dynamics is determined by the continuous spatial projection of the electronic quantum state under observation and features an emergent spatial scale of micrometer size induced by the Rydberg-Rydberg interactions.