Abstract: 

Off-resonant optical coupling of an atomic ground state to a Rydberg state, so-called "Rydberg-dressing", has been proposed as a versatile method to implement various long-range interacting spin models with ultracold atoms.
 

In our experiment, we realize Rydberg-dressed Ising spin interactions in an atomic Mott insulator of Rubidium-87 by off-resonant optical coupling to Rydberg p-states.

First interferometric experiments in a two-dimensional sample demonstrated versatile control of these interactions, however collective loss processes reduced the lifetime of the system.

Recent experimental results for a Rydberg-dressed one-dimensional Ising chain with long-range interactions showed that, contrary to the 2d case, the collective loss can be avoided.

We substantiated the resulting improvement of lifetimes by detecting interaction-driven coherent collapse and revival dynamics of the magnetization in the chain.
 

Finally, I will present our experimental progress on working with more exotic Rydberg interaction potentials, which promise further improvement of coherence times as well as access to entirely novel interaction characteristics.