Magic distances in the blockade mechanism of Rydbergpanddstates

Abstract

We show that the Rydberg blockade mechanism, which is well known in the case of $s$ states, can be significantly different for $p$ and $d$ states due to the van der Waals couplings between different Rydberg Zeeman sublevels and the presence of a magnetic field. We show, in particular, the existence of magic distances corresponding to the laser excitation of a superposition of doubly excited states.