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Letter

Nature Physics 5, 115–118 (1 February 2009) | doi:10.1038/nphys1183

Observation of collective excitation of two individual atoms in the Rydberg blockade regime

Alpha Ga|[euml]|tan , Yevhen Miroshnychenko , Tatjana Wilk , Amodsen Chotia , Matthieu Viteau , Daniel Comparat , Pierre Pillet , Antoine Browaeys & Philippe Grangier

When two quantum systems interact strongly with each other, their simultaneous excitation by the same driving pulse may be forbidden. The phenomenon is known as blockade of excitation.