The activity revolves around spectroscopic studies and few-body interactions such as between Rydberg atoms of Cs and Yb, and their interactions with light.
An opportunity is the creation of quantum computing gates with few particles. We have demonstrated several mechanisms of long-range resonant interactions that could allow for example the realization of a Toffoli gate.
Another opportunity is in the realization of quantum simulations. In this application, the atoms are usually held in an optical tweezers before being excited into a Rydberg state. The ytterbium atom has an advantage over the alkaline ones thanks to the optical transitions of the ionic core. We have now demonstrated the possibility to realize optical tweezers for this transition.