Spin Wave Diffraction Control and Read-out with a Quantum Memory for Light

A scheme for control and read-out of diffracted spins waves to propagating light fields is presented. Diffraction is obtained via sinusoidally varying lights shifts and ideal one-to-one mapping to light is realized using a gradient echo quantum memory. We also show that dynamical control of the diffracted spin waves spatial orders can be implemented to realize a quantum pulse sequencer for temporal modes that have high time-bandwidth products. Full numerical solutions suggest that both co-propagating and couterpropagating light shift geometries can be used, making the proposal applicable to hot and cold atomic vapours as well as solid state systems with two-level atoms.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Fast quantum control in dissipative systems using dissipationless solutions

We report on a systematic geometric procedure, built up on solutions designed in the absence of dissipation, to mitigate the effects of dissipation in the control of open quantum systems. Our method addresses a standard class of open quantum systems modeled by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. It provides the analytical expression of the extra magnetic field to be superimposed to the driving field in order to compensate the geometric distortion induced by dissipation, and produces an exact geometric optimization of fast population transfer. Interestingly, it also preserves the robustness properties of protocols originally optimized against noise. Its extension to two interacting spins restores a fidelity close to unity for the fast generation of Bell state in the presence of dissipation

Connection between inverse engineering and optimal control in shortcuts to adiabaticity

We consider fast high-fidelity quantum control by using a shortcut to adiabaticity (STA) technique and optimal control theory (OCT). Three specific examples, including expansion of cold atoms from the harmonic trap, atomic transport by moving harmonic trap, and spin dynamics in the presence of dissipation, are explicitly detailed. Using OCT as a qualitative guide, we demonstrate how STA protocols designed from inverse engineering method, can approach with very high precision optimal solutions built about physical constraints, by a proper choice of the interpolation function and with a very reduced number of adjustable parameters.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figure

Shortcuts To Adiabaticity for L\'evy processes in harmonic traps

L\'evy stochastic processes, with noise distributed according to a L\'evy stable distribution, are ubiquitous in science. Focusing on the case of a particle trapped in an external harmonic potential, we address the problem of finding "shortcuts to adiabaticity": after the system is prepared in a given initial stationary state, we search for time-dependent protocols for the driving external potential, such that a given final state is reached in a given, finite time. These techniques, usually used for stochastic processes with additive Gaussian noise, are typically based on a inverse-engineering approach. We generalise the approach to the wider class of L\'evy stochastic processes, both in the overdamped and in the underdamped regime, by finding exact equations for the relevant characteristic functions in Fourier space.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Chaotic dynamics and fractal structures in experiments with cold atoms

We use tools from nonlinear dynamics to the detailed analysis of cold atom experiments. A powerful example is provided by the recent concept of basin entropy which allows to quantify the final state unpredictability that results from the complexity of the phase space geometry. We show here that this enables one to reliably infer the presence of fractal structures in phase space from direct measurements. We illustrate the method with numerical simulations in an experimental configuration made of two crossing laser guides that can be used as a matter wave splitter

Optimal work in a harmonic trap with bounded stiffness

We apply Pontryagin's principle to drive rapidly a trapped overdamped Brownian particle in contact with a thermal bath between two equilibrium states corresponding to different trap stiffness $\kappa$. We work out the optimal time dependence $\kappa(t)$ by minimising the work performed on the particle under the non-holonomic constraint $0\leq\kappa\leq\kappa_{\max}$, an experimentally relevant situation. Several important differences arise, as compared with the case of unbounded stiffness that has been analysed in the literature. First, two arbitrary equilibrium states may not always be connected. Second, depending on the operating time $t_{\text{f}}$ and the desired compression ratio $\kappa_{\text{f}}/\kappa_{\text{\i}}$, different types of solutions emerge. Finally, the differences in the minimum value of the work brought about by the bounds may become quite large, which may have a relevant impact on the optimisation of heat engines.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures; submitted to Physical Review