Direct measurement of the van der Waals interaction between two Rydberg atoms

This talk will report on the direct measurement of the van der Waals interaction between two isolated, single Rydberg atoms separated by a controlled distance of a few micrometers. By working in a regime where the single-atom Rabi frequency of the laser used for excitation to the Rydberg state is comparable to the interaction energy, we observe a partial Rydberg blockade, whereby the time-dependent populations of the various two-atom states exhibit coherent oscillations with several frequencies. A quantitative comparison of the data with a simple model based on the optical Bloch equations allows us to extract the van der Waals energy, and to observe its characteristic C6 /R6 dependence. The magnitude of the measured C6 coefficient agrees well with ab-initio calculations, and we observe its dramatic increase with the principal quantum number n of the Rydberg state. Our results demonstrate a good degree of experimental control, which opens interesting perspectives in quantum information processing and quantum simulation using long-range interactions between atoms.