1,152 research outputs found
Cavity-induced temperature control of a two-level system
We consider a two-level atom interacting with a single mode of the
electromagnetic field in a cavity within the Jaynes-Cummings model. Initially,
the atom is thermal while the cavity is in a coherent state. The atom interacts
with the cavity field for a fixed time. After removing the atom from the cavity
and applying a laser pulse the atom will be in a thermal state again. Depending
on the interaction time with the cavity field the final temperature can be
varied over a large range. We discuss how this method can be used to cool the
internal degrees of freedom of atoms and create heat baths suitable for
studying thermodynamics at the nanoscale
Heat transport in a Coulomb ion crystal with a topological defect
The thermodynamics of low-dimensional systems departs significantly from
phenomenologically deducted macroscopic laws. Particular examples, not yet
fully understood, are provided by the breakdown of Fourier's law and the
ballistic transport of heat. Low-dimensional trapped ion systems provide an
experimentally accessible and well-controlled platform for the study of these
problems. In our work, we study the transport of thermal energy in
low-dimensional trapped ion crystals, focusing in particular on the influence
of the Aubry-like transition that occurs when a topological defect is present
in the crystal. We show that the transition significantly hinders efficient
heat transport, being responsible for the rise of a marked temperature gradient
in the non-equilibrium steady state. Further analysis reveals the importance of
the motional eigenfrequencies of the crystal.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Effective thermodynamics of strongly coupled qubits
Interactions between a quantum system and its environment at low temperatures
can lead to violations of thermal laws for the system. The source of these
violations is the entanglement between system and environment, which prevents
the system from entering into a thermal state. On the other hand, for two-state
systems, we show that one can define an effective temperature, placing the
system into a `pseudo-thermal' state where effective thermal laws are upheld.
We then numerically explore these assertions for an n-state system inspired by
the spin-boson environment.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Dressing of Ultracold Atoms by their Rydberg States in a Ioffe-Pritchard Trap
We explore how the extraordinary properties of Rydberg atoms can be employed
to impact the motion of ultracold ground state atoms. Specifically, we use an
off-resonant two-photon laser dressing to map features of the Rydberg states on
ground state atoms. It is demonstrated that the interplay between the spatially
varying quantization axis of the considered Ioffe-Pritchard field and the fixed
polarizations of the laser transitions provides the possibility of
substantially manipulating the ground state trapping potential.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Understanding and Controlling Cu-Catalyzed Graphene Nucleation: The Role of Impurities, Roughness, and Oxygen Scavenging
The mechanism by which Cu catalyst pretreatments control graphene nucleation density in scalable chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is systematically explored. The intrinsic and extrinsic carbon contamination in the Cu foil is identified by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry as a major factor influencing graphene nucleation and growth. By selectively oxidizing the backside of the Cu foil prior to graphene growth, a drastic reduction of the graphene nucleation density by 6 orders of magnitude can be obtained. This approach decouples surface roughness effects and at the same time allows us to trace the scavenging effect of oxygen on deleterious carbon impurities as it permeates through the Cu bulk. Parallels to well-known processes in Cu metallurgy are discussed. We also put into context the relative effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of the most widely used Cu pretreatments, including wet etching and electropolishing, allowing a rationalization of current literature and determination of the relevant parameter space for graphene growth. Taking into account the wider CVD growth parameter space, guidelines are discussed for high-throughput manufacturing of "electronic-quality" monolayer graphene films with domain size exceeding 1 mm, suitable for emerging industrial applications, such as electronics and photonics.This research was supported by the ERC under grant InsituNANO (279342), the EPSRC under grant GRAPHTED (EP/K016636/1), and the Innovation R&D programme of the National Measurement System of the U.K. Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (project number 118616)
Two-dimensional array of microtraps with atomic shift register on a chip
Arrays of trapped atoms are the ideal starting point for developing registers
comprising large numbers of physical qubits for storing and processing quantum
information. One very promising approach involves neutral atom traps produced
on microfabricated devices known as atom chips, as almost arbitrary trap
configurations can be realised in a robust and compact package. Until now,
however, atom chip experiments have focused on small systems incorporating
single or only a few individual traps. Here we report experiments on a
two-dimensional array of trapped ultracold atom clouds prepared using a simple
magnetic-film atom chip. We are able to load atoms into hundreds of tightly
confining and optically resolved array sites. We then cool the individual atom
clouds in parallel to the critical temperature required for quantum degeneracy.
Atoms are shuttled across the chip surface utilising the atom chip as an atomic
shift register and local manipulation of atoms is implemented using a focused
laser to rapidly empty individual traps.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Digital Quantum Simulation with Rydberg Atoms
We discuss in detail the implementation of an open-system quantum simulator
with Rydberg states of neutral atoms held in an optical lattice. Our scheme
allows one to realize both coherent as well as dissipative dynamics of complex
spin models involving many-body interactions and constraints. The central
building block of the simulation scheme is constituted by a mesoscopic Rydberg
gate that permits the entanglement of several atoms in an efficient, robust and
quick protocol. In addition, optical pumping on ancillary atoms provides the
dissipative ingredient for engineering the coupling between the system and a
tailored environment. As an illustration, we discuss how the simulator enables
the simulation of coherent evolution of quantum spin models such as the
two-dimensional Heisenberg model and Kitaev's toric code, which involves
four-body spin interactions. We moreover show that in principle also the
simulation of lattice fermions can be achieved. As an example for controlled
dissipative dynamics, we discuss ground state cooling of frustration-free spin
Hamiltonians.Comment: submitted to special issue "Quantum Information with Neutral
Particles" of "Quantum Information Processing
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