Cavity-induced phase stability to decelerate a fast molecular beam via feedback-controlled time-varying optical pumps

We have identified a novel phase stability mechanism from the intracavity field-induced self-organization of a fast-moving molecular beam into travelling molecular packets in the bad cavity regime, which is then used to decelerate the molecular packets by feedback-controlled time-varying laser pumps to the cavity. We first applied the linear stability analysis to derive an expression for this self-organization in the adiabatic limit and show that the self-organization of the beam leads to the formation of travelling molecular packets, which in turn function as a dynamic Bragg grating, thus modulating periodically the intracavity field by superradiant scattering of the pump photons. The modulation encodes the position information of the molecular packets into the output of the intracavity field instantaneously. We then applied time-varying laser pumps that are automatically switched by the output of the intracavity field to slow down the molecular packets via a feedback mechanism and found that most of the molecules in the molecular packets are decelerated to zero central velocity after tens of stages. Our cavity-based deceleration proposal works well in the bad cavity regime, which is very different from the conventional cavity- based cooling strategies where a good cavity is preferred. Practical issues in realizing the proposal are also discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure

Quantum phases of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms in triangular lattices

We present a theoretical study on the system of laser-driven strongly interacting Rydberg atoms trapped in a two-dimensional triangular lattice, in which the dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg states result in exotic quantum phases. By using the mean-field theory, we investigate the steady state solutions and analyze their dynamical stabilities. We find that in the strong-interaction limit, the dynamics of the system is chaotic and exhibits random oscillations under appropriate laser detunings. Lyapunov exponent criterion is introduced to confirm the existence of this chaotic behavior. In addition, we present a full quantum calculation based on a six-atom model, and find that the system exhibits some bi-antiferromagnetic properties in every triangular cell when the one-photon detuning is exactly resonant or blue-shifted.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Anderson Localization of cold atomic gases with effective spin-orbit interaction in a quasiperiodic optical lattice

We theoretically investigate the localization properties of a spin-orbit coupled spin-1/2 particle moving in a one-dimensional quasiperiodic potential, which can be experimentally implemented using cold atoms trapped in a quasiperiodic optical lattice potential and external laser fields. We present the phase diagram in the parameter space of the disorder strength and those related to the spin-orbit coupling. The phase diagram is verified via multifractal analysis of the atomic wavefunctions and the numerical simulation of diffusion dynamics. We found that spin-orbit coupling can lead to the spectra mixing (coexistence of extended and localized states) and the appearance of mobility edges.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Dynamical phases in a one-dimensional chain of Heterospecies Rydberg atoms with next-nearest neighbor interactions

We theoretically investigate the dynamical phase diagram of a one-dimensional chain of laser-excited two-species Rydberg atoms. The existence of a variety of unique dynamical phases in the experimentally-achievable parameter region is predicted under the mean-field approximation, and the change of those phases when the effect of the next-nearest neighbor interaction is included is further discussed. In particular we find the competition of the strong Rydberg-Rydberg interactions and the optical excitation imbalance can lead to the presence of complex multiple chaotic phases, which are highly sensitive to the initial Rydberg-state population and the strength of the next-nearest neighbor interactions.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Physical Review

Bloch oscillations of spin-orbit-coupled cold atoms in an optical lattice and spin current generation

We study the Bloch oscillation dynamics of a spin-orbit-coupled cold atomic gas trapped inside a one-dimensioanl optical lattice. The eigenspectra of the system is identified as two interpenetrating Wannier-Stark ladder. Based on that, we carefully analyzed the Bloch oscillation dynamics and found out that intraladder coupling between neighboring rungs of Wannier-Stark ladder give rise to ordinary Bloch oscillation while interladder coupling lead to small amplitude high frequency oscillation superimposed on it. Specifically spin-orbit interaction breaks Galilean invariance, which can be reflected by out-of-phase oscillation of the two spin components in the accelerated frame. The possibility of generating spin current in this system are also explored.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Anisotropic deformation of Rydberg blockade sphere in few-atom systems

Rydberg blockade sphere persists an intriguing picture by which a number of collective many-body effects caused by the strong Rydberg-Rydberg interactions can be clearly understood and profoundly investigated. In the present work, we develop a new definition for the effective two-atom blockade radius and show that the original spherically shaped blockade surface would be deformed when the real number of atoms increases from two to three. This deformation of blockade sphere reveals spatially anisotropic and shrunken properties which strongly depend on the interatomic distance. In addition, we also study the optimal conditions for the Rydberg antiblockade effect and make predictions for improving the antiblockade efficiency in few-atom systems.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Deceleration of molecules in a supersonic beam by the optical field in a low-finesse cavity

We study the dynamics of a supersonic molecular beam in a low-finesse optical cavity and demonstrate that most molecules in the beam can be decelerated to zero central velocity by the intracavity optical field in a process analogous to electrostatic Stark deceleration. We show that the rapid switching of the optical field for slowing the molecules is automatically generated by the cavity-induced dynamics. We further show that $\sim1\%$ of the molecules can be optically trapped at a few millikelvin in the same cavity.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Efficiency limitation for realizing an atom-molecule adiabatic transfer based on a chainwise system

In a recent work we have developed a robust chainwise atom-molecule adiabatic passage scheme to produce ultracold ground-state molecules via photo-associating free atoms [J. Qian {\it et.al.} Phys. Rev. A 81 013632 (2010)]. With the help of intermediate auxiliary levels, the pump laser intensity requested in the atomic photo-association process can be greatly reduced. In the present work, we extend the scheme to a more generalized (2$n$+1)-level system and investigate the efficiency limitation for it. As the increase of intermediate levels and auxiliary lasers, the atom-molecule adiabatic passage would be gradually closed, leading to a poor transfer efficiency. For the purpose of enhancing the efficiency, we present various optimization approaches to the laser parameters, involving order number $n$, relative strength ratio and absolute strength. We show there can remain a limit on the population transfer efficiency given by a three-level $\Lambda$ system. In addition, we illustrate the importance of selecting an appropriate number of intermediate levels for maintaining a highly efficient transfer under mild experimental conditions.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted by josa

Generating correlated (2+1)-photon in an active Raman gain medium

A scheme of generating controllable (2+1) photons in a double-$$ atomic system based on active-Raman-gain is presented in this paper. Such (2+1) photons can be a potential candidate to generate a correlated photon pair as the photon `1' acts as a trigger. Compared to other schemes of generating correlated photon pairs, our scheme exhibits a number of advantages due to the exploit of the stimulated Raman process.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Cavity-induced switching between localized and extended states in a non-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

We study an ultracold atom-cavity coupling system, which had been implemented in experiment to display weak light nonlinearity [S. Gupta \textit{et al}., Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{99}, 213601 (2007)]. The model is described by a non-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate contained in a Fabry-P\'{e}rot optical resonator, in which two incommensurate standing-wave modes are excited and thus form a quasiperiodic optical lattice potential for the atoms. Special emphasis are paid to the variation of atomic wavefunction induced by the cavity light field. We show that bistability between the atomic localized and extended states can be generated under appropriate conditions