Dislocation-mediated melting of one-dimensional Rydberg crystals

Abstract

We consider cold Rydberg atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice in the Mott regime with a single atom per site at zero temperature. An external laser drive with Rabi frequency $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ and laser detuning $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ creates Rydberg excitations whose dynamics is governed by an effective spin-chain model with (quasi) long-range interactions. This system possesses intrinsically a large degree of frustration resulting in a ground-state phase diagram in the $(\ensuremath{\Delta},\ensuremath{\Omega})$ plane with a rich topology. As a function of $\ensuremath{\Delta}$, the Rydberg blockade effect gives rise to a series of crystalline phases commensurate with the optical lattice that form a so-called devil's staircase. The Rabi frequency $\ensuremath{\Omega}$, on the other hand, creates quantum fluctuations that eventually lead to a quantum melting of the crystalline states. Upon increasing $\ensuremath{\Omega}$, we find that generically a commensurate-incommensurate transition to a floating Rydberg crystal that supports gapless phonon excitations occurs first. For even larger $\ensuremath{\Omega}$, dislocations within the floating Rydberg crystal start to proliferate and a second, Kosterlitz-Thouless-Nelson-Halperin-Young dislocation-mediated melting transition finally destroys the crystalline arrangement of Rydberg excitations. This latter melting transition is generic for one-dimensional Rydberg crystals and persists even in the absence of an optical lattice. The floating phase and the concomitant transitions can, in principle, be detected by Bragg scattering of light.