Abstract:
Optically controlled interactions among cold atoms are a powerful tool for fundamental studies of quantum many-body physics. One approach to create these interactions is Rydberg-dressing, off-resonantly coupling ground state atoms to Rydberg states. I will report on the realization of long-range Ising interactions in a dilute gas of cesium atoms by Rydberg dressing. We characterize the interactions by measuring the mean-field shift of the clock transition via Ramsey spectroscopy, observing paradigmatic one-axis twisting dynamics. We additionally emulate a transverse-field Ising model via periodic application of a microwave drive field and detect dynamical signatures of the paramagnetic-to-ferromagnetic phase transition. This work helps enable prospects ranging from investigating Floquet phases to producing metrologically useful entangled states.