arXiv subjects

A. M. Rey

Publications and source records attributed to A. M. Rey.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Quantum magnetism with ultracold molecules

This article gives an introduction to the realization of effective quantum magnetism with ultracold molecules in an optical lattice, reviews experimental and theoretical progress, and highlights future opportunities opened up by ongoing experiments. Ultracold molecules offer capabilities that are otherwise difficult or impossible to achieve in other effective spin systems, such as long-ranged spin-spin interactions with controllable degrees of spatial and spin anisotropy and favorable energy scales. Realizing quantum magnetism with ultracold molecules provides access to rich many-body behaviors, including many exotic phases of matter and interesting excitations and dynamics. Far-from-equilibrium dynamics plays a key role in our exposition, just as it did in recent ultracold molecule experiments realizing effective quantum magnetism. In particular, we show that dynamical probes allow the observation of correlated many-body spin physics, even in polar molecule gases that are not quantum degenerate. After describing how quantum magnetism arises in ultracold molecules and discussing recent observations of quantum magnetism with polar molecules, we survey prospects for the future, ranging from immediate goals to long-term visions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Hong-Ou-Mandel atom interferometry in tunnel-coupled optical tweezers

The quantum statistics of atoms is typically observed in the behavior of an ensemble via macroscopic observables. However, quantum statistics modifies the behavior of even two particles, inducing remarkable consequences that are at the heart of quantum science. Here we demonstrate near-complete control over all the internal and external degrees of freedom of two laser-cooled 87Rb atoms trapped in two optical tweezers. This full controllability allows us to implement a massive-particle analog of a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer where atom tunneling plays the role of a photon beamsplitter. We use the interferometer to probe the effect of quantum statistics on the two-atom dynamics under tunable initial conditions, chosen to adjust the degree of atomic indistinguishability. Our work thereby establishes laser-cooled atoms in optical tweezers as a new route to bottom-up engineering of scalable, low-entropy quantum systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Spectroscopic observation of SU(N)-symmetric interactions in Sr orbital magnetism

SU(N) symmetry can emerge in a quantum system with N single-particle spin states when spin is decoupled from inter-particle interactions. So far, only indirect evidence for this symmetry exists, and the scattering parameters remain largely unknown. Here we report the first spectroscopic observation of SU(N=10) symmetry in Sr-87 using the state-of-the-art measurement precision offered by an ultra-stable laser. By encoding the electronic orbital degree of freedom in two clock states, while keeping the system open to 10 nuclear spin sublevels, we probe the non-equilibrium two-orbital SU(N) magnetism via Ramsey spectroscopy of atoms confined in an array of two-dimensional optical traps. We study the spin-orbital quantum dynamics and determine all relevant interaction parameters. This work prepares for using alkaline-earth atoms as test-beds for iconic orbital models.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Beyond the Spin Model Approximation for Ramsey Spectroscopy

Ramsey spectroscopy has become a powerful technique for probing non-equilibrium dynamics of internal (pseudospin) degrees of freedom of interacting systems. In many theoretical treatments, the key to understanding the dynamics has been to assume the external (motional) degrees of freedom are decoupled from the pseudospin degrees of freedom. Determining the validity of this approximation -- known as the spin model approximation -- is complicated, and has not been addressed in detail. Here we shed light in this direction by calculating Ramsey dynamics exactly for two interacting spin-1/2 particles in a harmonic trap. We focus on $s$-wave-interacting fermions in quasi-one and two-dimensional geometries. We find that in 1D the spin model assumption works well over a wide range of experimentally-relevant conditions, but can fail at time scales longer than those set by the mean interaction energy. Surprisingly, in 2D a modified version of the spin model is exact to first order in the interaction strength. This analysis is important for a correct interpretation of Ramsey spectroscopy and has broad applications ranging from precision measurements to quantum information and to fundamental probes of many-body systems.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2014

Ultracold Fermi Gases with Emergent SU(N) Symmetry

We review recent experimental and theoretical progress on ultracold alkaline-earth Fermi gases with emergent SU$(N)$ symmetry. Emphasis is placed on describing the ground-breaking experimental achievements of recent years. The latter include the cooling to below quantum degeneracy of various isotopes of ytterbium and strontium, the demonstration of optical Feshbach resonances and the optical Stern-Gerlach effect, the realization of a Mott insulator of $^{173}$Yb atoms, the creation of various kinds of Fermi-Bose mixtures and the observation of many-body physics in optical lattice clocks. On the theory side, we survey the zoo of phases that have been predicted for both gases in a trap and loaded into an optical lattice, focusing on two and three-dimensional systems. We also discuss some of the challenges that lie ahead for the realization of such phases, such as reaching the temperature scale required to observe magnetic and more exotic quantum orders, and dealing with collisional relaxation of excited electronic levels.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Probing many-body interactions in an optical lattice clock

We present a unifying theoretical framework that describes recently observed many-body effects during the interrogation of an optical lattice clock operated with thousands of fermionic alkaline earth atoms. The framework is based on a many-body master equation that accounts for the interplay between elastic and inelastic p-wave and s-wave interactions, finite temperature effects and excitation inhomogeneity during the quantum dynamics of the interrogated atoms. Solutions of the master equation in different parameter regimes are presented and compared. It is shown that a general solution can be obtained by using the so called Truncated Wigner Approximation which is applied in our case in the context of an open quantum system. We use the developed framework to model the density shift and decay of the fringes observed during Ramsey spectroscopy in the JILA 87Sr and NIST 171Yb optical lattice clocks. The developed framework opens a suitable path for dealing with a variety of strongly-correlated and driven open-quantum spin systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Quenching to unitarity: Quantum dynamics in a 3D Bose gas

We study the dynamics of a dilute Bose gas at zero temperature following a sudden quench of the scattering length from a noninteracting Bose condensate to unitarity (infinite scattering length). We apply three complementary approaches to understand the momentum distribution and loss rates. First, using a time-dependent variational ansatz for the many-body state, we calculate the dynamics of the momentum distribution. Second, we demonstrate that, at short times and large momenta compared to those set by the density, the physics can be well understood within a simple, analytic two-body model. We derive a quantitative prediction for the evolution of Tan's contact, which increases linearly at short times. We also study the three-body losses at finite densities. Consistent with experiments, we observe lifetimes which are long compared to the dynamics of large momentum modes.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

A quantum many-body spin system in an optical lattice clock

Strongly interacting quantum many-body systems are fundamentally compelling and ubiquitous in science. However, their complexity generally prevents exact solutions of their dynamics. Precisely engineered ultracold atomic gases are emerging as a powerful tool to unravel these challenging physical problems. Here we present a new laboratory for the study of many-body effects: strongly interacting two-level systems formed by the clock states in ${}^{87}$Sr, which are used to realize a neutral atom optical clock that performs at the highest level of optical-atomic coherence and with precision near the limit set by quantum fluctuations. Our measurements of the collective spin evolution reveal signatures of many-body dynamics, including beyond-mean-field effects. We derive a many-body Hamiltonian that describes the experimental observation of severely distorted lineshapes, atomic spin coherence decay, density-dependent frequency shifts, and correlated quantum spin noise. These investigations open the door to exploring quantum many-body effects and entanglement in quantum systems with optical energy splittings, using highly coherent and precisely controlled optical lattice clocks.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

Cold collision shift cancelation and inelastic scattering in a Yb optical lattice clock

Recently, p-wave cold collisions were shown to dominate the density-dependent shift of the clock transition frequency in a 171Yb optical lattice clock. Here we demonstrate that by operating such a system at the proper excitation fraction, the cold collision shift is canceled below the 5x10^{-18} fractional frequency level. We report inelastic two-body loss rates for 3P0-3P0 and 1S0-3P0 scattering. We also measure interaction shifts in an unpolarized atomic sample. Collision measurements for this spin-1/2 171Yb system are relevant for high performance optical clocks as well as strongly-interacting systems for quantum information and quantum simulation applications.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

p-Wave cold collisions in an optical lattice clock

We study ultracold collisions in fermionic ytterbium by precisely measuring the energy shifts they impart on the atom's internal clock states. Exploiting Fermi statistics, we uncover p-wave collisions, in both weakly and strongly interacting regimes. With the higher density afforded by two-dimensional lattice confinement, we demonstrate that strong interactions can lead to a novel suppression of this collision shift. In addition to reducing the systematic errors of lattice clocks, this work has application to quantum information and quantum simulation with alkaline-earth atoms.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2010

Double Quantum Dots in Carbon Nanotubes

We study the two-electron eigenspectrum of a carbon-nanotube double quantum dot with spin-orbit coupling. Exact calculation are combined with a simple model to provide an intuitive and accurate description of single-particle and interaction effects. For symmetric dots and weak magnetic fields, the two-electron ground state is antisymmetric in the spin-valley degree of freedom and is not a pure spin-singlet state. When double occupation of one dot is favored by increasing the detuning between the dots, the Coulomb interaction causes strong correlation effects realized by higher orbital-level mixing. Changes in the double-dot configuration affect the relative strength of the electron-electron interactions and can lead to different ground state transitions. In particular, they can favor a ferromagnetic ground state both in spin and valley degrees of freedom. The strong suppression of the energy gap can cause the disappearance of the Pauli blockade in transport experiments and thereby can also limit the stability of spin-qubits in quantum information proposals. Our analysis is generalized to an array of coupled dots which is expected to exhibit rich many-body behavior.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Probing interaction-induced ferromagnetism in optical superlattices

We propose a controllable method for observing interaction induced ferromagnetism in ultracold fermionic atoms loaded in optical superlattices. We first discuss how to probe and control Nagaoka ferromagnetism in an array of isolated plaquettes (four lattice sites arranged in a square). Next, we show that introducing a weak interplaquette coupling destroys the ferromagnetic correlations. To overcome this instability we propose to mediate long-range ferromagnetic correlations among the plaquettes via double-exchange processes. Conditions for experimental realization and techniques to detect such states are discussed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

Two-orbital SU(N) magnetism with ultracold alkaline-earth atoms

Fermionic alkaline-earth atoms have unique properties that make them attractive candidates for the realization of novel atomic clocks and degenerate quantum gases. At the same time, they are attracting considerable theoretical attention in the context of quantum information processing. Here we demonstrate that when such atoms are loaded in optical lattices, they can be used as quantum simulators of unique many-body phenomena. In particular, we show that the decoupling of the nuclear spin from the electronic angular momentum can be used to implement many-body systems with an unprecedented degree of symmetry, characterized by the SU(N) group with N as large as 10. Moreover, the interplay of the nuclear spin with the electronic degree of freedom provided by a stable optically excited state allows for the study of spin-orbital physics. Such systems may provide valuable insights into strongly correlated physics of transition metal oxides, heavy fermion materials, and spin liquid phases.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

Many-body treatment of the collisional frequency shift in fermionic atoms

Recent clock experiments have measured density-dependent frequency shifts in polarized fermionic alkaline-earth atoms using 1S0-3P0 Rabi spectroscopy. Here we provide a first-principles non-equilibrium theoretical description of the interaction frequency shifts starting from the microscopic many-body Hamiltonian. Our formalism describes the dependence of the frequency shift on excitation inhomogeneity, interactions, and many-body dynamics, provides a fundamental understanding of the effects of the measurement process, and explains the observed density shift data. We also propose a method to measure the second of the two 1S0-3P0 scattering lengths, whose knowledge is essential for quantum information processing and quantum simulation applications.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2009

Single photon nonlinearities using arrays of cold polar molecules

We model single photon nonlinearities resulting from the dipole-dipole interactions of cold polar molecules. We propose utilizing ``dark state polaritons'' to effectively couple photon and molecular states; through this framework, coherent control of the nonlinearity can be expressed and potentially used in an optical quantum computation architecture. Due to the dipole-dipole interaction the photons pick up a measurable nonlinear phase even in the single photon regime. A manifold of protected symmetric eigenstates is used as basis. Depending on the implementation, major sources of decoherence result from non-symmetric interactions and phonon dispersion. We discuss the strength of the nonlinearity per photon and the feasibility of this system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Theory of correlations between ultra-cold bosons released from an optical lattice

In this paper we develop a theoretical description of the correlations between ultra-cold bosons after free expansion from confinement in an optical lattice. We consider the system evolution during expansion and give criteria for a far field regime. We develop expressions for first and second order two-point correlations based on a variety of commonly used approximations to the many-body state of the system including Bogoliubov, meanfield decoupling, and particle-hole perturbative solution about the perfect Mott-insulator state. Using these approaches we examine the effects of quantum depletion and pairing on the system correlations. Comparison with the directly calculated correlation functions is used to justify a Gaussian form of our theory from which we develop a general three-dimensional formalism for inhomogeneous lattice systems suitable for numerical calculations of realistic experimental regimes.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Preparation and detection of d-wave superfluidity in two-dimensional optical superlattices

We propose a controlled method to create and detect d-wave superfluidity with ultracold fermionic atoms loaded in two-dimensional optical superlattices. Our scheme consists in preparing an array of nearest-neighbor coupled square plaquettes or ``superplaquettes'' and using them as building blocks to construct a d-wave superfluid state. We describe how to use the coherent dynamical evolution in such a system to experimentally probe the pairing mechanism. We also derive the zero temperature phase diagram of the fermions in a checkerboard lattice (many weakly coupled plaquettes) and show that by tuning the inter-plaquette tunneling spin-dependently or varying the filling factor one can drive the system into a d-wave superfluid phase or a Cooper pair density wave phase. We discuss the use of noise correlation measurements to experimentally probe these phases.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Many-body protected entanglement generation in interacting spin systems

We discuss a method to achieve decoherence resistent entanglement generation in two level spin systems governed by gapped and multi-degenerate Hamiltonians. In such systems, while the large number of degrees of freedom in the ground state levels allows to create various quantum superpositions, the energy gap prevents decoherence. We apply the protected evolution to achieve decoherence resistent generation of many particle GHZ states and show it can significantly increase the sensitivity in frequency spectroscopy. We discuss how to engineer the desired many-body protected manifold in two specific physical systems, trapped ions and neutral atoms in optical lattices, and present simple expressions for the fidelity of GHZ generation under non-ideal conditions.

cond-mat.other↗