1,402 research outputs found
Generalized mean-field approach to simulate large dissipative spin ensembles with long range interactions
We simulate the collective dynamics in spin lattices with long range
interactions and collective decay in one, two and three dimensions. Starting
from a dynamical mean-field approach derived by local factorization of the
density operator we improve the numerical approximation of the full master
equation by including pair correlations at any distance. This truncations
enable us to drastically increase the number of spins in our numerical
simulations from about ten spins in case of the full quantum model to several
ten-thousands in the mean-field approximation and a few hundreds if pair
correlations are included. Extensive numerical tests help us identify
interaction strengths and geometric configurations where these approximations
perform well and allow us to state fairly simple error estimates. By simulating
systems of increasing size we show that in one and two dimensions we can
include as many spins as needed to capture the properties of infinite size
systems with high accuracy, while in 3D the method does not converge to desired
accuracy within the system sizes we can currently implement. Our approach is
well suited to give error estimates of magic wavelength optical lattices for
atomic clock applications and corresponding super radiant lasers
Atomic selfordering in a ring cavity with counterpropagating pump
The collective dynamics of mobile scatterers and light in optical resonators
generates complex behaviour. For strong transverse illumination a phase
transition from homogeneous to crystalline particle order appears. In contrast,
a gas inside a single-side pumped ring cavity exhibits an instability towards
bunching and collective acceleration called collective atomic recoil lasing
(CARL). We demonstrate that by driving two orthogonally polarized counter
propagating modes of a ring resonator one realises both cases within one
system. The corresponding phase diagram depending on the two pump intensities
exhibits regions in which either a generalized form of self-ordering towards a
travelling density wave with constant centre of mass velocity or a CARL
instability is formed. Controlling the cavity driving then allows to accelerate
or slow down and trap a sufficiently dense beam of linearly polarizable
particles.Comment: 5 page
Exciton-Polariton scattering for defect detection in cold atom Optical Lattices
We study the effect of defects in the Mott insulator phase of ultracold atoms
in an optical lattice on the dynamics of resonant excitations. Defects, which
can either be empty sites in a Mott insulator state with one atom per site or a
singly occupied site for a filling factor two, change the dynamics of Frenkel
excitons and cavity polaritons. While the vacancies in first case behave like
hard sphere scatters for excitons, singly occupied sites in the latter case can
lead to attractive or repulsive scattering potentials. We suggest cavity
polaritons as observation tool of such defects, and show how the scattering can
be controlled in changing the exciton-photon detuning. In the case of
asymmetric optical lattice sites we present how the scattering effective
potential can be detuned by the cavity photon polarization direction, with the
possibility of a crossover from a repulsive into an attractive potential.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure
Bright and dark excitons in an atom--pair filled optical lattice within a cavity
We study electronic excitations of a degenerate gas of atoms trapped in pairs
in an optical lattice. Local dipole-dipole interactions produce a long lived
antisymmetric and a short lived symmetric superposition of individual atomic
excitations as the lowest internal on-site excitations. Due to the much larger
dipole moment the symmetric states couple efficiently to neighbouring lattice
sites and can be well represented by Frenkel excitons, while the antisymmetric
dark states stay localized. Within a cavity only symmetric states couple to
cavity photons inducing long range interactions to form polaritons. We
calculate their dispersion curves as well as cavity transmission and reflection
spectra to observe them. For a lattice with aspherical sites bright and dark
states get mixed and their relative excitation energies depend on photon
polarizations. The system should allow to study new types of solid state
phenomena in atom filled optical lattices
Probing and characterizing the growth of a crystal of ultracold bosons and light
The non-linear coupled particle light dynamics of an ultracold gas in the field of two independent counter-propagating laser beams can lead to the dynamical formation of a self-ordered lattice structure as presented in (2016) Phys. Rev. X 6 021026. Here we present new numerical studies on experimentally observable signatures to monitor the growth and properties of such a crystal in real time. While, at least theoretically, optimal non-destructive observation of the growth dynamics and the hallmarks of the crystalline phase can be performed by analyzing scattered light, monitoring the evolution of the particle's momentum distribution via time-of-flight probing is an experimentally more accessible choice. In this work we show that both approaches allow us to unambiguously distinguish the crystal from independent collective scattering as it occurs in matter wave super-radiance. As a clear crystallization signature, we identify spatial locking between the two emerging standing laser waves, together creating the crystal potential. For sufficiently large systems, the system allows reversible adiabatic ramping into the crystalline phase as an alternative to a quench across the phase transition and growth from fluctuations
Driven-Dissipative Supersolid in a Ring Cavity
Supersolids are characterized by the counterintuitive coexistence of superfluid and crystalline order. Here we study a supersolid phase emerging in the steady state of a driven-dissipative system. We consider a transversely pumped Bose-Einstein condensate trapped along the axis of a ring cavity and coherently coupled to a pair of degenerate counterpropagating cavity modes. Above a threshold pump strength the interference of photons scattered into the two cavity modes results in an emergent superradiant lattice, which spontaneously breaks the continuous translational symmetry towards a periodic atomic pattern. The crystalline steady state inherits the superfluidity of the Bose-Einstein condensate, thus exhibiting genuine properties of a supersolid. A gapless collective Goldstone mode correspondingly appears in the superradiant phase, which can be nondestructively monitored via the relative phase of the two cavity modes on the cavity output. Despite cavity-photon losses the Goldstone mode remains undamped, indicating the robustness of the supersolid phase
Mimicking a Squeezed Bath Interaction: Quantum Reservoir Engineering with Atoms
The interaction of an atomic two-level system and a squeezed vacuum leads to
interesting novel effects in atomic dynamics, including line narrowing in
resonance fluorescence and absorption spectra, and a suppressed (enhanced)
decay of the in-phase and out-of phase component of the atomic polarization. On
the experimental side these predictions have so far eluded observation,
essentially due to the difficulty of embedding atoms in a 4 pi squeezed vacuum.
In this paper we show how to ``engineer'' a squeezed-bath-type interaction for
an effective two-level system. In the simplest example, our two-level atom is
represented by the two ground levels of an atom with angular momentum J=1/2 ->
J=1/2 transition (a four level system) which is driven by (weak) laser fields
and coupled to the vacuum reservoir of radiation modes. Interference between
the spontaneous emission channels in optical pumping leads to a squeezed bath
type coupling, and thus to symmetry breaking of decay on the Bloch sphere. With
this system it should be possible to observe the effects predicted in the
context of squeezed bath - atom interactions. The laser parameters allow one to
choose properties of the squeezed bath interaction, such as the (effective)
photon number expectation number N and the squeezing phase phi. We present
results of a detailed analytical and numerical study.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure
Rate-equation approach to atomic-laser light statistics
We consider three- and four-level atomic lasers that are either incoherently
(unidirectionally) or coherently (bidirectionally) pumped, the single-mode
cavity being resonant with the laser transition. The intra-cavity Fano factor
and the photo-current spectral density are evaluated on the basis of rate
equations.
According to that approach, fluctuations are caused by jumps in active and
detecting atoms. The algebra is considerably simpler than the one required by
Quantum-Optics treatments.
Whenever a comparison can be made, the expressions obtained coincide. The
conditions under which the output light exhibits sub-Poissonian statistics are
considered in detail. Analytical results, based on linearization, are verified
by comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. An essentially exhaustive
investigation of sub-Poissonian light generation by three- and four-level atoms
lasers has been performed. Only special forms were reported earlier.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX
Atom-molecule dark states in a Bose-Einstein condensate
We have created a dark quantum superposition state of a Rb Bose-Einstein
condensate (BEC) and a degenerate gas of Rb ground state molecules in a
specific ro-vibrational state using two-color photoassociation. As a signature
for the decoupling of this coherent atom-molecule gas from the light field we
observe a striking suppression of photoassociation loss. In our experiment the
maximal molecule population in the dark state is limited to about 100 Rb
molecules due to laser induced decay. The experimental findings can be well
described by a simple three mode model.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
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