559 research outputs found
Loading of a surface-electrode ion trap from a remote, precooled source
We demonstrate loading of ions into a surface-electrode trap (SET) from a
remote, laser-cooled source of neutral atoms. We first cool and load
neutral Sr atoms into a magneto-optical trap from an oven that
has no line of sight with the SET. The cold atoms are then pushed with a
resonant laser into the trap region where they are subsequently photoionized
and trapped in an SET operated at a cryogenic temperature of 4.6 K. We present
studies of the loading process and show that our technique achieves ion loading
into a shallow (15 meV depth) trap at rates as high as 125 ions/s while
drastically reducing the amount of metal deposition on the trap surface as
compared with direct loading from a hot vapor. Furthermore, we note that due to
multiple stages of isotopic filtering in our loading process, this technique
has the potential for enhanced isotopic selectivity over other loading methods.
Rapid loading from a clean, isotopically pure, and precooled source may enable
scalable quantum information processing with trapped ions in large, low-depth
surface trap arrays that are not amenable to loading from a hot atomic beam
New obstructions to symplectic embeddings
In this paper we establish new restrictions on symplectic embeddings of
certain convex domains into symplectic vector spaces. These restrictions are
stronger than those implied by the Ekeland-Hofer capacities. By refining an
embedding technique due to Guth, we also show that they are sharp.Comment: 80 pages, 3 figures, v2: improved exposition and minor corrections,
v3: Final version, expanded and improved exposition and minor corrections.
The final publication is available at link.springer.co
Spatially-dependent sensitivity of superconducting meanders as single-photon detectors
The photo-response of a thin current-carrying superconducting stripe with a
90-degree turn is studied within the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory. We
show that the photon acting near the inner corner (where the current density is
maximal due to the current crowding [J. R. Clem and K. K. Berggren, Phys. Rev.
B {\bf 84}, 174510 (2011)]) triggers the nucleation of superconducting vortices
at currents much smaller than the expected critical one, but {\it does not}
bring the system to a higher resistive state and thus remains undetected. The
transition to the resistive state occurs only when the photon hits the stripe
away from the corner due to there uniform current distribution across the
sample, and dissipation is due to the nucleation of a kinematic
vortex-antivortex pair near the photon incidence. We propose strategies to
account for this problem in the measurements
Quantum information processing using quasiclassical electromagnetic interactions between qubits and electrical resonators
Electrical resonators are widely used in quantum information processing, by engineering an electromagnetic interaction with qubits based on real or virtual exchange of microwave photons. This interaction relies on strong coupling between the qubits' transition dipole moments and the vacuum fluctuations of the resonator in the same manner as cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), and has consequently come to be called 'circuit QED' (cQED). Great strides in the control of quantum information have already been made experimentally using this idea. However, the central role played by photon exchange induced by quantum fluctuations in cQED does result in some characteristic limitations. In this paper, we discuss an alternative method for coupling qubits electromagnetically via a resonator, in which no photons are exchanged, and where the resonator need not have strong quantum fluctuations. Instead, the interaction can be viewed in terms of classical, effective 'forces' exerted by the qubits on the resonator, and the resulting resonator dynamics used to produce qubit entanglement are purely classical in nature. We show how this type of interaction is similar to that encountered in the manipulation of atomic ion qubits, and we exploit this analogy to construct two-qubit entangling operations that are largely insensitive to thermal or other noise in the resonator, and to its quality factor. These operations are also extensible to larger numbers of qubits, allowing interactions to be selectively generated among any desired subset of those coupled to a single resonator. Our proposal is potentially applicable to a variety of physical qubit modalities, including superconducting and semiconducting solid-state qubits, trapped molecular ions, and possibly even electron spins in solids.United States. Dept. of Defense. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (United States. Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002
A superconducting-nanowire 3-terminal electronic device
In existing superconducting electronic systems, Josephson junctions play a
central role in processing and transmitting small-amplitude electrical signals.
However, Josephson-junction-based devices have a number of limitations
including: (1) sensitivity to magnetic fields, (2) limited gain, (3) inability
to drive large impedances, and (4) difficulty in controlling the junction
critical current (which depends sensitively on sub-Angstrom-scale thickness
variation of the tunneling barrier). Here we present a nanowire-based
superconducting electronic device, which we call the nanocryotron (nTron), that
does not rely on Josephson junctions and can be patterned from a single thin
film of superconducting material with conventional electron-beam lithography.
The nTron is a 3-terminal, T-shaped planar device with a gain of ~20 that is
capable of driving impedances of more than 100 k{\Omega}, and operates in
typical ambient magnetic fields at temperatures of 4.2K. The device uses a
localized, Joule-heated hotspot formed in the gate to modulate current flow in
a perpendicular superconducting channel. We have characterized the nTron,
matched it to a theoretical framework, and applied it both as a digital logic
element in a half-adder circuit, and as a digital amplifier for superconducting
nanowire single-photon detectors pulses. The nTron has immediate applications
in classical and quantum communications, photon sensing and astronomy, and its
performance characteristics make it compatible with existing superconducting
technologies. Furthermore, because the hotspot effect occurs in all known
superconductors, we expect the design to be extensible to other materials,
providing a path to digital logic, switching, and amplification in
high-temperature superconductors
Time-Dependent Variational Analysis of Josephson Oscillations in a Two-component Bose-Einstein Condensate
The dynamics of Josephson-like oscillations between two coupled Bose-Einstein
condensates is studied using the time-dependent variational method. We suppose
that the quantum state of the condensates is a gaussian wave-packet which can
translate and perform breathing shape oscillations. Under this hypotheses we
study the influence of these degrees of freedom on the tunneling dynamics by
comparing the full-model with one where these degrees of freedom are ``frozen''
at its equilibrium values. The result of our calculation shows that when the
traps are not displaced the two models agree, whereas when they are, the models
differ considerably, the former being now closer to its linear approximation.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Condensation of Pairs of Fermionic Atoms Near a Feshbach Resonance
We have observed Bose-Einstein condensation of pairs of fermionic atoms in an
ultracold ^6Li gas at magnetic fields above a Feshbach resonance, where no
stable ^6Li_2 molecules would exist in vacuum. We accurately determined the
position of the resonance to be 822+-3 G. Molecular Bose-Einstein condensates
were detected after a fast magnetic field ramp, which transferred pairs of
atoms at close distances into bound molecules. Condensate fractions as high as
80% were obtained. The large condensate fractions are interpreted in terms of
pre-existing molecules which are quasi-stable even above the two-body Feshbach
resonance due to the presence of the degenerate Fermi gas.Comment: submitted to PRL. v3: clarifying revisions, added referenc
Application of the Kerman-Klein method to the solution of a spherical shell model for a deformed rare-earth nucleus
Core-particle coupling models are made viable by assuming that core
properties such as matrix elements of multipole and pairing operators and
excitation spectra are known independently. From the completeness relation, it
is seen, however, that these quantities are themselves algebraic functions of
the calculated core-particle amplitudes. For the deformed rare-earth nucleus
158Gd, we find that these sum rules are well-satisfied for the ground state
band, implying that we have found a self-consistent solution of the non-linear
Kerman-Klein equations.Comment: revtex and postscript, including 1 figure(postscript), submitted to
Phys.Rev.Let
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