Spin squeezing of atoms by Rydberg blockade

Isabelle Bouchoule, Klaus Moelmer

Published 2001-05-29, updated 2001-06-20Version 2

We show that the interaction between Rydberg atomic states can provide continuous spin squeezing of atoms with two ground states. The interaction prevents the simultaneous excitation of more than a single atom in the sample to the Rydberg state, and we propose to utilize this blockade effect to realize an effective collective spin hamiltonian J_x^2-J_y^2. With this hamiltonian the quantum mechanical uncertainty of the spin variable J_x+J_y can be reduced significantly.