We demonstrate a feature of the Rydberg blockade mechanism which occurs between two initially excited circular Rydberg atoms. When both atoms are exposed to weak time-dependent electric fields, it is shown that the intrashell dynamics of each atom is strongly modified by the presence of the other. Three characteristic dynamical regimes are identified with separating radii which both scale linearly with principal quantum number $n$ for otherwise constant field parameters. A region of conditional entangled electron dynamics is separated from the outer asymptotic region of independent atom dynamics through a conditional radius, $R_c$. An inner region, where both atoms becomes locked in their initial state, is again separated from the conditional region by a smaller blocking radius, $R_b$.

• Received 10 August 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.83.015401