787 research outputs found
The theory of heating of the quantum ground state of trapped ions
Using a displacement operator formalism, I analyse the depopulation of the
vibrational ground state of trapped ions. Two heating times, one characterizing
short time behaviour, the other long time behaviour are found. The short time
behaviour is analyzed both for single and multiple ions, and a formula for the
relative heating rates of different modes is derived. The possibility of
correction of heating via the quantum Zeno effect, and the exploitation of the
suppression of heating of higher modes to reduce errors in quantum computation
is considered.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Resolved-sideband Raman cooling to the ground state of an optical lattice
We trap neutral Cs atoms in a two-dimensional optical lattice and cool them
close to the zero-point of motion by resolved-sideband Raman cooling. Sideband
cooling occurs via transitions between the vibrational manifolds associated
with a pair of magnetic sublevels and the required Raman coupling is provided
by the lattice potential itself. We obtain mean vibrational excitations
\bar{n}_x \approx \bar{n}_y \approx 0.01, corresponding to a population \sim
98% in the vibrational ground state. Atoms in the ground state of an optical
lattice provide a new system in which to explore quantum state control and
subrecoil laser coolingComment: PDF file, 13 pages including 3 figure
Ground-State of Charged Bosons Confined in a Harmonic Trap
We study a system composed of N identical charged bosons confined in a
harmonic trap. Upper and lower energy bounds are given. It is shown in the
large N limit that the ground-state energy is determined within an accuracy of
and that the mean field theory provides a reasonable result with
relative error of less than 16% for the binding energy .Comment: 15 page
Diagnostic criterion for crystallized beams
Small ion crystals in a Paul trap are stable even in the absence of laser
cooling. Based on this theoretically and experimentally well-established fact
we propose the following diagnostic criterion for establishing the presence of
a crystallized beam: Absence of heating following the shut-down of all cooling
devices. The validity of the criterion is checked with the help of detailed
numerical simulations.Comment: REVTeX, 11 pages, 4 figures; submitted to PR
Proposal for an experimental test of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics predicts the formation of
distinct parallel worlds as a result of a quantum mechanical measurement.
Communication among these parallel worlds would experimentally rule out
alternatives to this interpretation. A procedure for ``interworld'' exchange of
information and energy, using only state of the art quantum optical equipment,
is described. A single ion is isolated from its environment in an ion trap.
Then a quantum mechanical measurement with two discrete outcomes is performed
on another system, resulting in the formation of two parallel worlds. Depending
on the outcome of this measurement the ion is excited from only one of the
parallel worlds before the ion decoheres through its interaction with the
environment. A detection of this excitation in the other parallel world is
direct evidence for the many-worlds interpretation. This method could have
important practical applications in physics and beyond.Comment: 17 pages, standard LaTex, no pictures, comments welcome, revised
version corrects typing error in mixing tim
Dark pair coherent states of the motion of a trapped ion
We propose a scheme for generating vibrational pair coherent states of the
motion of an ion in a two-dimensional trap. In our scheme, the trapped ion is
excited bichromatically by three laser beams along different directions in the
X-Y plane of the ion trap. We show that if the initial vibrational state is
given by a two-mode Fock state, the final steady state, indicated by the
extinction of the fluorescence emitted by the ion, is a pure state. The
motional state of the ion in the equilibrium realizes that of the
highly-correlated pair coherent state.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure
Theory of Photon Blockade by an Optical Cavity with One Trapped Atom
In our recent paper [1], we reported observations of photon blockade by one
atom strongly coupled to an optical cavity. In support of these measurements,
here we provide an expanded discussion of the general phenomenology of photon
blockade as well as of the theoretical model and results that were presented in
Ref. [1]. We describe the general condition for photon blockade in terms of the
transmission coefficients for photon number states. For the atom-cavity system
of Ref. [1], we present the model Hamiltonian and examine the relationship of
the eigenvalues to the predicted intensity correlation function. We explore the
effect of different driving mechanisms on the photon statistics. We also
present additional corrections to the model to describe cavity birefringence
and ac-Stark shifts. [1] K. M. Birnbaum, A. Boca, R. Miller, A. D. Boozer, T.
E. Northup, and H. J. Kimble, Nature 436, 87 (2005).Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Doppler cooling and trapping on forbidden transitions
Ultracold atoms at temperatures close to the recoil limit have been achieved
by extending Doppler cooling to forbidden transitions. A cloud of ^40Ca atoms
has been cooled and trapped to a temperature as low as 6 \mu K by operating a
magneto-optical trap on the spin-forbidden intercombination transition.
Quenching the long-lived excited state with an additional laser enhanced the
scattering rate by a factor of 15, while a high selectivity in velocity was
preserved. With this method more than 10% of pre-cooled atoms from a standard
magneto-optical trap have been transferred to the ultracold trap. Monte-Carlo
simulations of the cooling process are in good agreement with the experiments
Measurements of the Correlation Function of a Microwave Frequency Single Photon Source
At optical frequencies the radiation produced by a source, such as a laser, a
black body or a single photon source, is frequently characterized by analyzing
the temporal correlations of emitted photons using single photon counters. At
microwave frequencies, however, there are no efficient single photon counters
yet. Instead, well developed linear amplifiers allow for efficient measurement
of the amplitude of an electromagnetic field. Here, we demonstrate how the
properties of a microwave single photon source can be characterized using
correlation measurements of the emitted radiation with such detectors. We also
demonstrate the cooling of a thermal field stored in a cavity, an effect which
we detect using a cross-correlation measurement of the radiation emitted at the
two ends of the cavity.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Photon Statistics; Nonlinear Spectroscopy of Single Quantum Systems
A unified description of multitime correlation functions, nonlinear response
functions, and quantum measurements is developed using a common generating
function which allows a direct comparison of their information content. A
general formal expression for photon counting statistics from single quantum
objects is derived in terms of Liouville space correlation functions of the
material system by making a single assumption that spontaneous emission is
described by a master equation
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