Quantum phases of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms in triangular lattices

Abstract

We present a theoretical study on the system of laser-driven strongly interacting Rydberg atoms trapped in a two-dimensional triangular lattice, in which the dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg states result in exotic quantum phases. By using the mean-field theory, we investigate the steady state solutions and analyze their dynamical stabilities. We find that in the strong-interaction limit, the dynamics of the system is chaotic and exhibits random oscillations under appropriate laser detunings. Lyapunov exponent criterion is introduced to confirm the existence of this chaotic behavior. In addition, we present a full quantum calculation based on a six-atom model, and find that the system exhibits some bi-antiferromagnetic properties in every triangular cell when the one-photon detuning is exactly resonant or blue-shifted.