Interactions and excitation blockade of Rydberg macrodimers

RESUMO

We present a theoretical study of interactions between Rydberg macrodimers, molecular bound states of Rydberg atoms, and the largest known neutral homonuclear diatomic molecules. Accounting for the large number of molecular interaction channels from four interacting Rydberg atoms, we show that macrodimer-macrodimer interactions are anisotropic and similar in strength and range to atomic-state Rydberg interactions. Our analysis reveals the presence of two-atom, three-atom, and four-atom contributions in the bimolecular system, and elucidates how these interactions are rooted in the underlying atomic Rydberg-state couplings. Our calculations of the excitation blockade between macrodimers are in reasonable agreement with experimentally observed signals, and pave the way for the exploration of optically controlled collective quantum dynamics in molecular systems.