Dipole-dipole induced global motion of Rydberg-dressed atom clouds

Abstract

We consider two clouds of ground state alkali atoms in two distinct hyperfine ground states. Each level is far off-resonantly coupled to a Rydberg state, which leads to dressed ground states with a weak admixture of the Rydberg state properties. Due to this admixture, for a proper choice of the Rydberg states, the atoms experience resonant dipole-dipole interactions that induce mechanical forces acting on all atoms within both clouds. This behavior is in contrast to the dynamics predicted for bare dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg superatoms, where only a single atom per cloud is subject to dipole-dipole induced motion [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 88} 012716 (2013)].