Resonant stroboscopic Rydberg dressing: electron-motion coupling and multi-body interactions

Abstract

Rydberg dressing traditionally refers to a technique where interactions between cold atoms are imprinted through the far off-resonant continuous-wave excitation of high-lying Rydberg states. Dipolar interactions between these electronic states are then translated into effective interactions among ground state atoms. Motivated by recent experiments, we investigate two dressing protocols, in which Rydberg atoms are resonantly excited in a stroboscopic fashion. The first one is non-adiabatic, meaning Rydberg states are excited by fast pulses. In this case, mechanical forces among Rydberg atoms result in electron-motion coupling, which generates effective multi-body interactions. In the second, adiabatic protocol, Rydberg states are excited by smoothly varying laser pulses. We show that also in this protocol substantial multi-body interactions emerge.