265 research outputs found
Avalanches in a Bose-Einstein condensate
Collisional avalanches are identified to be responsible for an 8-fold
increase of the initial loss rate of a large 87-Rb condensate. We show that the
collisional opacity of an ultra-cold gas exhibits a critical value. When
exceeded, losses due to inelastic collisions are substantially enhanced. Under
these circumstances, reaching the hydrodynamic regime in conventional BEC
experiments is highly questionable.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl
Photon-Photon Entanglement with a Single Trapped Atom
An experiment is performed where a single rubidium atom trapped within a
high-finesse optical cavity emits two independently triggered entangled
photons. The entanglement is mediated by the atom and is characterized both by
a Bell inequality violation of S=2.5, as well as full quantum-state tomography,
resulting in a fidelity exceeding F=90%. The combination of cavity-QED and
trapped atom techniques makes our protocol inherently deterministic - an
essential step for the generation of scalable entanglement between the nodes of
a distributed quantum network.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Remote Entanglement between a Single Atom and a Bose-Einstein Condensate
Entanglement between stationary systems at remote locations is a key resource
for quantum networks. We report on the experimental generation of remote
entanglement between a single atom inside an optical cavity and a Bose-Einstein
condensate (BEC). To produce this, a single photon is created in the
atom-cavity system, thereby generating atom-photon entanglement. The photon is
transported to the BEC and converted into a collective excitation in the BEC,
thus establishing matter-matter entanglement. After a variable delay, this
entanglement is converted into photon-photon entanglement. The matter-matter
entanglement lifetime of 100 s exceeds the photon duration by two orders
of magnitude. The total fidelity of all concatenated operations is 95%. This
hybrid system opens up promising perspectives in the field of quantum
information
Density functional theory and DFT+U study of transition metal porphines adsorbed on Au(111) surfaces and effects of applied electric fields
We apply Density Functional Theory (DFT) and the DFT+U technique to study the
adsorption of transition metal porphine molecules on atomistically flat Au(111)
surfaces. DFT calculations using the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange
correlation functional correctly predict the palladium porphine (PdP) low-spin
ground state. PdP is found to adsorb preferentially on gold in a flat geometry,
not in an edgewise geometry, in qualitative agreement with experiments on
substituted porphyrins. It exhibits no covalent bonding to Au(111), and the
binding energy is a small fraction of an eV. The DFT+U technique, parameterized
to B3LYP predicted spin state ordering of the Mn d-electrons, is found to be
crucial for reproducing the correct magnetic moment and geometry of the
isolated manganese porphine (MnP) molecule. Adsorption of Mn(II)P on Au(111)
substantially alters the Mn ion spin state. Its interaction with the gold
substrate is stronger and more site-specific than PdP. The binding can be
partially reversed by applying an electric potential, which leads to
significant changes in the electronic and magnetic properties of adsorbed MnP,
and ~ 0.1 Angstrom, changes in the Mn-nitrogen distances within the porphine
macrocycle. We conjecture that this DFT+U approach may be a useful general
method for modeling first row transition metal ion complexes in a
condensed-matter setting.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure
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