Dislocation-mediated melting of one-dimensional Rydberg crystals

Eran Sela, Matthias Punk, and Markus Garst
Phys. Rev. B 84, 085434 – Published 29 August 2011

Abstract

We consider cold Rydberg atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice in the Mott regime with a single atom per site at zero temperature. An external laser drive with Rabi frequency Ω and laser detuning Δ creates Rydberg excitations whose dynamics is governed by an effective spin-chain model with (quasi) long-range interactions. This system possesses intrinsically a large degree of frustration resulting in a ground-state phase diagram in the (Δ,Ω) plane with a rich topology. As a function of Δ, the Rydberg blockade effect gives rise to a series of crystalline phases commensurate with the optical lattice that form a so-called devil's staircase. The Rabi frequency Ω, on the other hand, creates quantum fluctuations that eventually lead to a quantum melting of the crystalline states. Upon increasing Ω, we find that generically a commensurate-incommensurate transition to a floating Rydberg crystal that supports gapless phonon excitations occurs first. For even larger Ω, dislocations within the floating Rydberg crystal start to proliferate and a second, Kosterlitz-Thouless-Nelson-Halperin-Young dislocation-mediated melting transition finally destroys the crystalline arrangement of Rydberg excitations. This latter melting transition is generic for one-dimensional Rydberg crystals and persists even in the absence of an optical lattice. The floating phase and the concomitant transitions can, in principle, be detected by Bragg scattering of light.

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  • Received 24 March 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.085434

©2011 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Eran Sela1, Matthias Punk2,3, and Markus Garst1

  • 1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Str. 77, DE-50937 Köln, Germany
  • 2Physik Department, Technische Universität München, James-Franck-Strasse, DE-85748 Garching, Germany
  • 3Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

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Issue

Vol. 84, Iss. 8 — 15 August 2011

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