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1. Asymmetric Rydberg blockade of giant excitons in Cuprous Oxide

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23852-z  

   Heckötter, Julian; Walther, Valentin; Scheel, Stefan; Bayer, Manfred; Pohl, Thomas; Aßmann, Marc (June 2021, Nature Communications)

   Abstract The ability to generate and control strong long-range interactions via highly excited electronic states has been the foundation for recent breakthroughs in a host of areas, from atomic and molecular physics to quantum optics and technology. Rydberg excitons provide a promising solid-state realization of such highly excited states, for which record-breaking orbital sizes of up to a micrometer have indeed been observed in cuprous oxide semiconductors. Here, we demonstrate the generation and control of strong exciton interactions in this material by optically producing two distinct quantum states of Rydberg excitons. This is made possible by two-color pump-probe experiments that allow for a detailed probing of the interactions. Our experiments reveal the emergence of strong spatial correlations and an inter-state Rydberg blockade that extends over remarkably large distances of several micrometers. The generated many-body states of semiconductor excitons exhibit universal properties that only depend on the shape of the interaction potential and yield clear evidence for its vastly extended-range and power-law character. 

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2. Highly-excited Rydberg excitons in synthetic thin-film cuprous oxide

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41465-y  

   DeLange, Jacob; Barua, Kinjol; Paul, Anindya Sundar; Ohadi, Hamid; Zwiller, Val; Steinhauer, Stephan; Alaeian, Hadiseh (December 2023, Scientific Reports)

   Abstract Cuprous oxide ($$\hbox {Cu}{}_2\hbox {O}$$ $\text{Cu}{}_2\text{O}$) has recently emerged as a promising material in solid-state quantum technology, specifically for its excitonic Rydberg states characterized by large principal quantum numbers (n). The significant wavefunction size of these highly-excited states (proportional to$$n^2$$ $n^2$) enables strong long-range dipole-dipole (proportional to$$n^4$$ $n^4$) and van der Waals interactions (proportional to$$n^{11}$$ $n^{11}$). Currently, the highest-lying Rydberg states are found in naturally occurring$$\hbox {Cu}_2\hbox {O}$$ ${\text{Cu}}_2\text{O}$. However, for technological applications, the ability to grow high-quality synthetic samples is essential. The fabrication of thin-film$$\hbox {Cu}{}_2\hbox {O}$$ $\text{Cu}{}_2\text{O}$samples is of particular interest as they hold potential for observing extreme single-photon nonlinearities through the Rydberg blockade. Nevertheless, due to the susceptibility of high-lying states to charged impurities, growing synthetic samples of sufficient quality poses a substantial challenge. This study successfully demonstrates the CMOS-compatible synthesis of a$$\hbox {Cu}{}_2\hbox {O}$$ $\text{Cu}{}_2\text{O}$thin film on a transparent substrate that showcases Rydberg excitons up to$$n = 8$$ $n=8$which is readily suitable for photonic device fabrications. These findings mark a significant advancement towards the realization of scalable and on-chip integrable Rydberg quantum technologies. 

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3. Observation of Rydberg exciton polaritons and their condensate in a perovskite cavity

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909948116  

   Bao, Wei; Liu, Xiaoze; Xue, Fei; Zheng, Fan; Tao, Renjie; Wang, Siqi; Xia, Yang; Zhao, Mervin; Kim, Jeongmin; Yang, Sui; et al (October 2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   The condensation of half-light half-matter exciton polaritons in semiconductor optical cavities is a striking example of macroscopic quantum coherence in a solid-state platform. Quantum coherence is possible only when there are strong interactions between the exciton polaritons provided by their excitonic constituents. Rydberg excitons with high principal value exhibit strong dipole–dipole interactions in cold atoms. However, polaritons with the excitonic constituent that is an excited state, namely Rydberg exciton polaritons (REPs), have not yet been experimentally observed. Here, we observe the formation of REPs in a single crystal CsPbBr 3 perovskite cavity without any external fields. These polaritons exhibit strong nonlinear behavior that leads to a coherent polariton condensate with a prominent blue shift. Furthermore, the REPs in CsPbBr 3 are highly anisotropic and have a large extinction ratio, arising from the perovskite’s orthorhombic crystal structure. Our observation not only sheds light on the importance of many-body physics in coherent polariton systems involving higher-order excited states, but also paves the way for exploring these coherent interactions for solid-state quantum optical information processing. 

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4. Quantum Spin Ice in Three-Dimensional Rydberg Atom Arrays

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.15.011025  

   Shah, Jeet; Nambiar, Gautam; Gorshkov, Alexey V; Galitski, Victor (February 2025, Physical review)

   Quantum spin liquids are exotic phases of matter whose low-energy physics is described as the deconfined phase of an emergent gauge theory. With recent theory proposals and an experiment showing preliminary signs of ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$topological order [G. Semeghini , ], Rydberg atom arrays have emerged as a promising platform to realize a quantum spin liquid. In this work, we propose a way to realize a U(1) quantum spin liquid in three spatial dimensions, described by the deconfined phase of U(1) gauge theory in a pyrochlore lattice Rydberg atom array. We study the ground state phase diagram of the proposed Rydberg system as a function of experimentally relevant parameters. Within our calculation, we find that by tuning the Rabi frequency, one can access both the confinement-deconfinement transition driven by a proliferation of “magnetic” monopoles and the Higgs transition driven by a proliferation of “electric” charges of the emergent gauge theory. We suggest experimental probes for distinguishing the deconfined phase from ordered phases. This work serves as a proposal to access a confinement-deconfinement transition in three spatial dimensions on a Rydberg-based quantum simulator. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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5. Confinement of long-lived interlayer excitons in WS2/WSe2 heterostructures

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-021-00625-0  

   Montblanch, Alejandro R.-P.; Kara, Dhiren M.; Paradisanos, Ioannis; Purser, Carola M.; Feuer, Matthew S.; Alexeev, Evgeny M.; Stefan, Lucio; Qin, Ying; Blei, Mark; Wang, Gang; et al (December 2021, Communications Physics)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Interlayer excitons in layered materials constitute a novel platform to study many-body phenomena arising from long-range interactions between quantum particles. Long-lived excitons are required to achieve high particle densities, to mediate thermalisation, and to allow for spatially and temporally correlated phases. Additionally, the ability to confine them in periodic arrays is key to building a solid-state analogue to atoms in optical lattices. Here, we demonstrate interlayer excitons with lifetime approaching 0.2 ms in a layered-material heterostructure made from WS 2 and WSe 2 monolayers. We show that interlayer excitons can be localised in an array using a nano-patterned substrate. These confined excitons exhibit microsecond-lifetime, enhanced emission rate, and optical selection rules inherited from the host material. The combination of a permanent dipole, deterministic spatial confinement and long lifetime places interlayer excitons in a regime that satisfies one of the requirements for simulating quantum Ising models in optically resolvable lattices. 

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