Science Alert August 8, 2022
Strong interactions between two single atoms have not been harnessed for ultrafast quantum operations due to the stringent requirements on the fluctuation of the atom positions and the necessary excitation strength. Researchers in Japan have developed a technique to trap and cool atoms to the motional quantum ground state of holographic optical tweezers, which allows control of the inter-atomic distance down to 1.5 μm with a quantum-limited precision of 30 nm. Then they used ultrashort laser pulses to excite a pair of these nearby atoms far beyond the Rydberg blockade regime and performed Ramsey interferometry with attosecond precision. This allowed them to induce and track an ultrafast interaction-driven energy exchange completed on nanosecond timescales—two orders of magnitude faster than in any other Rydberg experiments in the tweezers platform so far. According to the researchers the work opens the path for quantum simulation and computation operating at the speed limit set by dipole–dipole interactions with this ultrafast Rydberg platform…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Ultrafast Rydberg platform. Credit: Nat. Photon. (2022).Â