818 research outputs found
Mesoscopic Spin-Boson Models of Trapped Ions
Trapped ions arranged in Coulomb crystals provide us with the elements to
study the physics of a single spin coupled to a boson bath. In this work we
show that optical forces allow us to realize a variety of spin-boson models,
depending on the crystal geometry and the laser configuration. We study in
detail the Ohmic case, which can be implemented by illuminating a single ion
with a travelling wave. The mesoscopic character of the phonon bath in trapped
ions induces new effects like the appearance of quantum revivals in the spin
evolution.Comment: 4.4 pages, 5 figure
Fermionic Mach-Zehnder interferometer subject to a quantum bath
We study fermions in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, subject to a
quantum-mechanical environment leading to inelastic scattering, decoherence,
renormalization effects, and time-dependent conductance fluctuations. Both the
loss of interference contrast as well as the shot noise are calculated, using
equations of motion and leading order perturbation theory. The full dependence
of the shot-noise correction on setup parameters, voltage, temperature and the
bath spectrum is presented. We find an interesting contribution due to
correlations between the fluctuating renormalized phase shift and the output
current, discuss the limiting behaviours at low and high voltages, and compare
with simpler models of dephasing.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
A many-fermion generalization of the Caldeira-Leggett model
We analyze a model system of fermions in a harmonic oscillator potential
under the influence of a dissipative environment: The fermions are subject to a
fluctuating force deriving from a bath of harmonic oscillators. This represents
an extension of the well-known Caldeira-Leggett model to the case of many
fermions. Using the method of bosonization, we calculate one- and two-particle
Green's functions of the fermions. We discuss the relaxation of a single extra
particle added above the Fermi sea, considering also dephasing of a particle
added in a coherent superposition of states. The consequences of the separation
of center-of-mass and relative motion, the Pauli principle, and the
bath-induced effective interaction are discussed. Finally, we extend our
analysis to a more generic coupling between system and bath, that results in
complete thermalization of the system.Comment: v3: fixed pdf problem; v2: added exact formula (Eq. 42) for Green's
function and discussion of equilibrium density matrix (new Fig. 2); 10
figures, 21 pages, see quant-ph/0305098 for brief version of some of these
result
Naturally-phasematched second harmonic generation in a whispering gallery mode resonator
We demonstrate for the first time natural phase matching for optical
frequency doubling in a high-Q whispering gallery mode resonator made of
Lithium Niobate. A conversion efficiency of 9% is achieved at 30 micro Watt
in-coupled continuous wave pump power. The observed saturation pump power of
3.2 mW is almost two orders of magnitude lower than the state-of-the-art. This
suggests an application of our frequency doubler as a source of non-classical
light requiring only a low-power pump, which easily can be quantum noise
limited. Our theoretical analysis of the three-wave mixing in a whispering
gallery mode resonator provides the relative conversion efficiencies for
frequency doubling in various modes
Quantum squeezing of motion in a mechanical resonator
As a result of the quantum, wave-like nature of the physical world, a
harmonic oscillator can never be completely at rest. Even in the quantum ground
state, its position will always have fluctuations, called the zero-point
motion. Although the zero-point fluctuations are unavoidable, they can be
manipulated. In this work, using microwave frequency radiation pressure, we
both prepare a micron-scale mechanical system in a state near the quantum
ground state and then manipulate its thermal fluctuations to produce a
stationary, quadrature-squeezed state. We deduce that the variance of one
motional quadrature is 0.80 times the zero-point level, or 1 dB of
sub-zero-point squeezing. This work is relevant to the quantum engineering of
states of matter at large length scales, the study of decoherence of large
quantum systems, and for the realization of ultra-sensitive sensing of force
and motion
Universal dephasing in a chiral 1D interacting fermion system
We consider dephasing by interactions in a one-dimensional chiral fermion
system (e.g. a Quantum Hall edge state). For finite-range interactions, we
calculate the spatial decay of the Green's function at fixed energy, which sets
the contrast in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Using a physically transparent
semiclassical ansatz, we find a power-law decay of the coherence at high
energies and zero temperature (T=0), with a universal asymptotic exponent of 1,
independent of the interaction strength. We obtain the dephasing rate at T>0
and the fluctuation spectrum acting on an electron.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; minor changes, version as published
Quantum reconstruction of an intense polarization squeezed optical state
We perform a reconstruction of the polarization sector of the density matrix
of an intense polarization squeezed beam starting from a complete set of Stokes
measurements. By using an appropriate quasidistribution, we map this onto the
Poincare space providing a full quantum mechanical characterization of the
measured polarization state.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps color figure
Ground State Energy Fluctuations of a System Coupled to a Bath
It is often argued that a small non-degenerate quantum system coupled to a
bath has a fixed energy in its ground state since a fluctuation in energy would
require an energy supply from the bath. We consider a simple model of a
harmonic oscillator (the system) coupled to a linear string and determine the
mean squared energy fluctuations. We also analyze the two time correlator of
the energy and discuss its behavior for a finite string.Comment: 5 pages, 2 eps figures, minor change
Hybrid-Entanglement in Continuous Variable Systems
Entanglement is one of the most fascinating features arising from
quantum-mechanics and of great importance for quantum information science. Of
particular interest are so-called hybrid-entangled states which have the
intriguing property that they contain entanglement between different degrees of
freedom (DOFs). However, most of the current continuous variable systems only
exploit one DOF and therefore do not involve such highly complex states. We
break this barrier and demonstrate that one can exploit squeezed cylindrically
polarized optical modes to generate continuous variable states exhibiting
entanglement between the spatial and polarization DOF. We show an experimental
realization of these novel kind of states by quantum squeezing an azimuthally
polarized mode with the help of a specially tailored photonic crystal fiber
Assessing the Polarization of a Quantum Field from Stokes Fluctuation
We propose an operational degree of polarization in terms of the variance of
the projected Stokes vector minimized over all the directions of the Poincar\'e
sphere. We examine the properties of this degree and show that some problems
associated with the standard definition are avoided. The new degree of
polarization is experimentally determined using two examples: a bright squeezed
state and a quadrature squeezed vacuum.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Comments welcome
- …