Strong Quantum Spin Correlations Observed in Atomic Spin Mixing

We have observed sub-Poissonian spin correlations generated by collisionally induced spin mixing in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate. We measure a quantum noise reduction of -7 dB (-10 dB corrected for detection noise) below the standard quantum limit (SQL) for the corresponding coherent spin states. The spin fluctuations are detected as atom number differences in the spin states using fluorescent imaging that achieves a detection noise floor of 8 atoms per spin component for a probe time of 100 $\mu$s.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

A noise-immune cavity-assisted non-destructive detection for an optical lattice clock in the quantum regime

We present and implement a non-destructive detection scheme for the transition probability readout of an optical lattice clock. The scheme relies on a differential heterodyne measurement of the dispersive properties of lattice-trapped atoms enhanced by a high finesse cavity. By design, this scheme offers a 1st order rejection of the technical noise sources, an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio, and an homogeneous atom-cavity coupling. We theoretically show that this scheme is optimal with respect to the photon shot noise limit. We experimentally realize this detection scheme in an operational strontium optical lattice clock. The resolution is on the order of a few atoms with a photon scattering rate low enough to keep the atoms trapped after detection. This scheme opens the door to various different interrogations protocols, which reduce the frequency instability, including atom recycling, zero-dead time clocks with a fast repetition rate, and sub quantum projection noise frequency stability

Photoassociation spectroscopy of a Spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate

We report on the high resolution photoassociation spectroscopy of a $^{87}$Rb spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate to the $1_\mathrm{g} (P_{3/2}) v = 152$ excited molecular states. We demonstrate the use of spin dependent photoassociation to experimentally identify the molecular states and their corresponding initial scattering channel. These identifications are in excellent agreement with the eigenvalues of a hyperfine-rotational Hamiltonian. Using the observed spectra we estimate the change in scattering length and identify photoassociation laser light frequency ranges that maximize the change in the spin-dependent mean-field interaction energy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

FLAIR #1: semantic segmentation and domain adaptation dataset

The French National Institute of Geographical and Forest Information (IGN) has the mission to document and measure land-cover on French territory and provides referential geographical datasets, including high-resolution aerial images and topographic maps. The monitoring of land-cover plays a crucial role in land management and planning initiatives, which can have significant socio-economic and environmental impact. Together with remote sensing technologies, artificial intelligence (IA) promises to become a powerful tool in determining land-cover and its evolution. IGN is currently exploring the potential of IA in the production of high-resolution land cover maps. Notably, deep learning methods are employed to obtain a semantic segmentation of aerial images. However, territories as large as France imply heterogeneous contexts: variations in landscapes and image acquisition make it challenging to provide uniform, reliable and accurate results across all of France. The FLAIR-one dataset presented is part of the dataset currently used at IGN to establish the French national reference land cover map "Occupation du sol \`a grande \'echelle" (OCS- GE).Comment: Data access updat

Generation and detection of a sub-Poissonian atom number distribution in a one-dimensional optical lattice

We demonstrate preparation and detection of an atom number distribution in a one-dimensional atomic lattice with the variance $-14$ dB below the Poissonian noise level. A mesoscopic ensemble containing a few thousand atoms is trapped in the evanescent field of a nanofiber. The atom number is measured through dual-color homodyne interferometry with a pW-power shot noise limited probe. Strong coupling of the evanescent probe guided by the nanofiber allows for a real-time measurement with a precision of $\pm 8$ atoms on an ensemble of some $10^3$ atoms in a one-dimensional trap. The method is very well suited for generating collective atomic entangled or spin-squeezed states via a quantum non-demolition measurement as well as for tomography of exotic atomic states in a one-dimensional lattice

Spin-Nematic Squeezed Vacuum in a Quantum Gas

Using squeezed states it is possible to surpass the standard quantum limit of measurement uncertainty by reducing the measurement uncertainty of one property at the expense of another complementary property. Squeezed states were first demonstrated in optical fields and later with ensembles of pseudo spin-1/2 atoms using non-linear atom-light interactions. Recently, collisional interactions in ultracold atomic gases have been used to generate a large degree of quadrature spin squeezing in two-component Bose condensates. For pseudo spin-1/2 systems, the complementary properties are the different components of the total spin vector , which fully characterize the state on an SU(2) Bloch sphere. Here, we measure squeezing in a spin-1 Bose condensate, an SU(3) system, which requires measurement of the rank-2 nematic or quadrupole tensor as well to fully characterize the state. Following a quench through a nematic to ferromagnetic quantum phase transition, squeezing is observed in the variance of the quadratures up to -8.3(-0.7 +0.6) dB (-10.3(-0.9 +0.7) dB corrected for detection noise) below the standard quantum limit. This spin-nematic squeezing is observed for negligible occupation of the squeezed modes and is analogous to optical two-mode vacuum squeezing. This work has potential applications to continuous variable quantum information and quantum-enhanced magnetometry

Towards quantum state tomography of a single polariton state of an atomic ensemble

We present a proposal and a feasibility study for the creation and quantum state tomography of a single polariton state of an atomic ensemble. The collective non-classical and non-Gaussian state of the ensemble is generated by detection of a single forward scattered photon. The state is subsequently characterized by atomic state tomography performed using strong dispersive light-atoms interaction followed by a homodyne measurement on the transmitted light. The proposal is backed by preliminary experimental results showing projection noise limited sensitivity and a simulation demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed method for detection of a non-classical and non-Gaussian state of the mesoscopic atomic ensemble. This work represents the first attempt of hybrid discrete-continuous variable quantum state processing with atomic ensembles

A clock network for geodesy and fundamental science

Leveraging the unrivaled performance of optical clocks in applications in fundamental physics beyond the standard model, in geo-sciences, and in astronomy requires comparing the frequency of distant optical clocks truthfully. Meeting this requirement, we report on the first comparison and agreement of fully independent optical clocks separated by 700 km being only limited by the uncertainties of the clocks themselves. This is achieved by a phase-coherent optical frequency transfer via a 1415 km long telecom fiber link that enables substantially better precision than classical means of frequency transfer. The fractional precision in comparing the optical clocks of three parts in $10^{17}$ was reached after only 1000 s averaging time, which is already 10 times better and more than four orders of magnitude faster than with any other existing frequency transfer method. The capability of performing high resolution international clock comparisons paves the way for a redefinition of the unit of time and an all-optical dissemination of the SI-second.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl