4,148 research outputs found
Spontaneous-emission suppression via multiphoton quantum interference
The spontaneous emission is investigated for an effective atomic two-level
system in an intense coherent field with frequency lower than the
vacuum-induced decay width. As this additional low-frequency field is assumed
to be intense, multiphoton processes may be induced, which can be seen as
alternative transition pathways in addition to the simple spontaneous decay.
The interplay of the various interfering transition pathways influences the
decay dynamics of the two-level system and may be used to slow down the
spontaneous decay considerably. We derive from first principles an expression
for the Hamiltonian including up to three-photon processes. This Hamiltonian is
then applied to a quantum mechanical simulation of the decay dynamics of the
two-level system. Finally, we discuss numerical results of this simulation
based on a rubidium atom and show that the spontaneous emission in this system
may be suppressed substantially.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, latest version with minor change
Quantum correlations of an atomic ensemble via a classical bath
Somewhat surprisingly, quantum features can be extracted from a classical
bath. For this, we discuss a sample of three-level atoms in ladder
configuration interacting only via the surrounding bath, and show that the
fluorescence light emitted by this system exhibits non-classical properties.
Typical realizations for such an environment are thermal baths for microwave
transition frequencies, or incoherent broadband fields for optical transitions.
In a small sample of atoms, the emitted light can be switched from sub- to
super-poissonian and from anti-bunching to super-bunching controlled by the
mean number of atoms in the sample. Larger samples allow to generate
super-bunched light over a wide range of bath parameters and thus fluorescence
light intensities. We also identify parameter ranges where the fields emitted
on the two transitions are correlated or anti-correlated, such that the
Cauchy-Schwarz inequality is violated. As in a moderately strong baths this
violation occurs also for larger numbers of atoms, such samples exhibit
mesoscopic quantum effects.Comment: 4 page
Double-EIT ground-state laser cooling without blue-sideband heating
We discuss a laser cooling scheme for trapped atoms or ions which is based on
double electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and makes use of a
four-level atom in tripod configuration. The additional fourth atomic state is
coupled by a strong coupling laser field to the usual three-level setup of
single-EIT cooling. This effectively allows to create two EIT structures in the
absorption spectrum of the system to be cooled, which may be controlled by the
coupling laser field parameters to cancel both the carrier- and the
blue-sideband excitations. In leading order of the Lamb-Dicke expansion, this
suppresses all heating processes. As a consequence, the double-EIT scheme can
be used to lower the cooling limit by almost two powers of the Lamb-Dicke
parameter as compared to single-EIT cooling.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Negative refraction with tunable absorption in an active dense gas of atoms
Applications of negative index materials (NIM) presently are severely limited
by absorption. Next to improvements of metamaterial designs, it has been
suggested that dense gases of atoms could form a NIM with negligible losses. In
such gases, the low absorption is facilitated by quantum interference. Here, we
show that additional gain mechanisms can be used to tune and effectively remove
absorption in a dense gas NIM. In our setup, the atoms are coherently prepared
by control laser fields, and further driven by a weak incoherent pump field to
induce gain. We employ nonlinear optical Bloch equations to analyze the optical
response. Metastable Neon is identified as a suitable experimental candidate at
infrared frequencies to implement a lossless active negative index material.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure
Localization of atomic ensembles via superfluorescence
The sub-wavelength localization of an ensemble of atoms concentrated to a
small volume in space is investigated. The localization relies on the
interaction of the ensemble with a standing wave laser field. The light
scattered in the interaction of standing wave field and atom ensemble depends
on the position of the ensemble relative to the standing wave nodes. This
relation can be described by a fluorescence intensity profile, which depends on
the standing wave field parameters, the ensemble properties, and which is
modified due to collective effects in the ensemble of nearby particles. We
demonstrate that the intensity profile can be tailored to suit different
localization setups. Finally, we apply these results to two localization
schemes. First, we show how to localize an ensemble fixed at a certain position
in the standing wave field. Second, we discuss localization of an ensemble
passing through the standing wave field.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Bearing-only acoustic tracking of moving speakers for robot audition
This paper focuses on speaker tracking in robot audition for human-robot interaction. Using only acoustic signals, speaker tracking in enclosed spaces is subject to missing detections and spurious clutter measurements due to speech inactivity, reverberation and interference. Furthermore, many acoustic localization approaches estimate speaker direction, hence providing bearing-only measurements without range information. This paper presents a probability hypothesis density (PHD) tracker that augments the bearing-only speaker directions of arrival with a cloud of range hypotheses at speaker initiation and propagates the random variates through time. Furthermore, due to their formulation PHD filters explicitly model, and hence provide robustness against, clutter and missing detections. The approach is verified using experimental results
Polymeric forms of carbon in dense lithium carbide
The immense interest in carbon nanomaterials continues to stimulate intense
research activities aimed to realize carbon nanowires, since linear chains of
carbon atoms are expected to display novel and technologically relevant
optical, electrical and mechanical properties. Although various allotropes of
carbon (e.g., diamond, nanotubes, graphene, etc.) are among the best known
materials, it remains challenging to stabilize carbon in the one-dimensional
form because of the difficulty to suitably saturate the dangling bonds of
carbon. Here, we show through first-principles calculations that ordered
polymeric carbon chains can be stabilized in solid LiC under moderate
pressure. This pressure-induced phase (above 5 GPa) consists of parallel arrays
of twofold zigzag carbon chains embedded in lithium cages, which display a
metallic character due to the formation of partially occupied carbon lone-pair
states in \emph{sp}-like hybrids. It is found that this phase remains the
most favorable one in a wide range of pressure. At extreme pressure (larger the
215 GPa) a structural and electronic phase transition towards an insulating
single-bonded threefold-coordinated carbon network is predicted.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Breakdown of the few-level approximation in collective systems
The validity of the few-level approximation in dipole-dipole interacting
collective systems is discussed. As example system, we study the archetype case
of two dipole-dipole interacting atoms, each modelled by two complete sets of
angular momentum multiplets. We establish the breakdown of the few-level
approximation by first proving the intuitive result that the dipole-dipole
induced energy shifts between collective two-atom states depend on the length
of the vector connecting the atoms, but not on its orientation, if complete and
degenerate multiplets are considered. A careful analysis of our findings
reveals that the simplification of the atomic level scheme by artificially
omitting Zeeman sublevels in a few-level approximation generally leads to
incorrect predictions. We find that this breakdown can be traced back to the
dipole-dipole coupling of transitions with orthogonal dipole moments. Our
interpretation enables us to identify special geometries in which partial
few-level approximations to two- or three-level systems are valid
Spontaneous decay processes in a classical strong low-frequency laser field
The spontaneous emission of an excited two-level emitter driven by a strong
classical coherent low-frequency electromagnetic field is investigated. We find
that for relatively strong laser driving, multi-photon processes are induced,
thereby opening additional decay channels for the atom. We analyze the
interplay between the strong low-frequency driving and the interfering
multiphoton decay channels, and discuss its implications for the spontaneous
emission dynamics.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
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