arXiv subjects

Almut Beige

Publications and source records attributed to Almut Beige.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Generating single-mode behavior in fiber-coupled optical cavities

We propose to turn two resonant distant cavities effectively into one by coupling them via an optical fiber which is coated with two-level atoms [Franson et al., Phys. Rev. A 70, 062302 (2004)]. The purpose of the atoms is to destructively measure the evanescent electric field of the fiber on a time scale which is long compared to the time it takes a photon to travel from one cavity to the other. Moreover, the boundary conditions imposed by the setup should support a small range of standing waves inside the fiber, including one at the frequency of the cavities. In this way, the fiber provides an additional decay channel for one common cavity field mode but not for the other. If the corresponding decay rate is sufficiently large, this mode decouples effectively from the system dynamics. A single non-local resonator mode is created.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Rotating wave approximation and entropy

This paper studies composite quantum systems, like atom-cavity systems and coupled optical resonators, in the absence of external driving by resorting to methods from quantum field theory. Going beyond the rotating wave approximation, it is shown that the usually neglected counter-rotating part of the Hamiltonian relates to the entropy operator and generates an irreversible time evolution. The vacuum state of the system is shown to evolve into a generalized coherent state exhibiting entanglement of the modes in which the counter-rotating terms are expressed. Possible consequences at observational level in quantum optics experiments are currently under study.

math-ph↗

arXiv2010

Energy concentration in composite quantum systems

The spontaneous emission of photons from optical cavities and from trapped atoms has been studied extensively in the framework of quantum optics. Theoretical predictions based on the rotating wave approximation (RWA) are in general in very good agreement with experimental findings. However, current experiments aim at combining better and better cavities with large numbers of tightly confined atoms. Here we predict an energy concentrating mechanism in the behavior of such a composite quantum system which cannot be described by the RWA. Its result is the continuous leakage of photons through the cavity mirrors, even in the absence of external driving. We conclude with a discussion of the predicted phenomenon in the context of thermodynamics.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2010

Protecting subspaces by acting on the outside

Many quantum control tasks aim at manipulating the state of a quantum mechanical system within a finite subspace of states. However, couplings to the outside are often inevitable. Here we discuss strategies which keep the system in the controlled subspace by applying strong interactions onto the outside. This is done by drawing analogies to simple toy models and to the quantum Zeno effect. Special attention is paid to the constructive use of dissipation in the protection of subspaces.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Enhancing laser sideband cooling in one-dimensional optical lattices via the dipole interaction

We study resolved sideband laser cooling of a one-dimensional optical lattice with one atom per site, and in particular the effect of the dipole interaction between radiating atoms. For simplicity, we consider the case where only a single cooling laser is applied. We derive a master equation, and solve it in the limit of a deep lattice and weak laser driving. We find that the dipole interaction significantly changes the final temperature of the particles, increasing it for some phonon wavevectors and decreasing it for others. The total phonon energy over all modes is typically higher than in the non-interacting case, but can be made lower by the right choice of parameters.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

Cooling atoms into entangled states

We discuss the possibility of preparing highly entangled states by simply cooling atoms into the ground state of an applied interaction Hamiltonian. As in laser sideband cooling, we take advantage of a relatively large detuning of the desired state, while all other qubit states experience resonant laser driving. Once spontaneous emission from excited atomic states prepares the system in its ground state, it remains there with a very high fidelity for a wide range of experimental parameters and all possible initial states. After presenting the general theory, we discuss concrete applications with one and two qubits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

High error-rate quantum key distribution for long-distance communication

In the original BB84 protocol by Bennett and Brassard, an eavesdropper is detected because his attempts to intercept information result in a quantum bit error rate (QBER) of at least 25%. Here we design an alternative quantum key distribution protocol, where Alice and Bob use two mutually unbiased bases with one of them encoding a "0" and the other one encoding a "1." The security of the scheme is due to a minimum index transmission error rate (ITER) introduced by an eavesdropper which increases significantly for higher-dimensional photon states. This allows for more noise in the transmission line, thereby increasing the possible distance between Alice and Bob without the need for intermediate nodes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Quantum Optical Heating in Sonoluminescence Experiments

Sonoluminescence occurs when tiny bubbles rilled with noble gas atoms are driven by a sound wave. Each cycle of the driving field is accompanied by a collapse phase in which the bubble radius decreases rapidly until a short but very strong light flash is emitted. The spectrum of the light corresponds to very high temperatures and hints at the presence of a hot plasma core. While everyone accepts that the effect is real, the main energy focussing mechanism is highly controversial. Here we suggest that the heating of the bubble might be due to a weak but highly inhomogeneous electric field as it occurs during rapid bubble deformations [A. Kurcz et al. (submitted)]. It is shown that such a field couples the quantised motion of the atoms to their electronic states, thereby resulting in very high heating rates.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2009

Sonoluminescence and quantum optical heating

Sonoluminescence is the intriguing phenomenon of strong light flashes from tiny bubbles in a liquid. The bubbles are driven by an ultrasonic wave and need to be filled with noble gas atoms. Approximating the emitted light by blackbody radiation indicates very high temperatures. Although sonoluminescence has been studied extensively, the origin of the sudden energy concentration within the bubble collapse phase is still controversial. It is hence difficult to further increase the temperature inside the bubble for applications like sonochemistry and table top fusion. Here we show that the strongly confined nobel gas atoms inside the bubble can be heated very rapidly by a weak but highly inhomogeneous electric field as it might occur naturally during rapid bubble deformations. An indirect proof of the proposed quantum optical heating mechanism would be the detection of the non-thermal emission of photons in the optical regime prior to the light flash. Our model implies that it is possible to increase the temperature inside the bubble with the help of appropriately detuned laser fields.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Entangling distant quantum dots using classical interference

We show that it is possible to employ reservoir engineering to turn two distant and relatively bad cavities into one good cavity with a tunable spontaneous decay rate. As a result, quantum computing schemes, that would otherwise require the shuttling of atomic qubits in and out of an optical resonator, can now be applied to distant quantum dots. To illustrate this we transform a recent proposal to entangle two qubits via the observation of macroscopic fluorescence signals [Metz et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 040503 (2006)] to the electron-spin states of two semiconductor quantum dots. Our scheme requires neither the coherent control of qubit-qubit interactions nor the detection of single photons. Moreover, the scheme is relatively robust against spin-bath couplings, parameter fluctuations, and the spontaneous emission of photons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Atomic cluster state build up with macroscopic heralding

We describe a measurement-based state preparation scheme for the efficient build up of cluster states in atom-cavity systems. As in a recent proposal for the generation of maximally entangled atom pairs [Metz et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 040503 (2006)], we use an electron shelving technique to avoid the necessity for the detection of single photons. Instead, the successful fusion of smaller into larger clusters is heralded by an easy-to-detect macroscopic fluorescence signal. High fidelities are achieved even in the vicinity of the bad cavity limit and are essentially independent of the concrete size of the system parameters.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Macroscopic quantum jumps and entangled state preparation

Recently we predicted a random blinking, i.e. macroscopic quantum jumps, in the fluorescence of a laser-driven atom-cavity system [Metz et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 040503 (2006)]. Here we analyse the dynamics underlying this effect in detail and show its robustness against parameter fluctuations. Whenever the fluorescence of the system stops, a macroscopic dark period occurs and the atoms are shelved in a maximally entangled ground state. The described setup can therefore be used for the controlled generation of entanglement. Finite photon detector efficiencies do not affect the success rate of the state preparation, which is triggered upon the observation of a macroscopic fluorescence signal. High fidelities can be achieved even in the vicinity of the bad cavity limit due to the inherent role of dissipation in the jump process.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Single-qubit rotations in 2D optical lattices with multi-qubit addressing

Optical lattices with one atom on each site and interacting via cold controlled collisions provide an efficient way to entangle a large number of qubits with high fidelity. It has already been demonstrated experimentally that this approach is especially suited for the generation of cluster states [O. Mandel et al., Nature 425, 937 (2003)] which reduce the resource requirement for quantum computing to the ability to perform single-qubit rotations and qubit read out. In this paper, we describe how to implement these rotations in 1D and 2D optical lattices without having to address the atoms individually with a laser field.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Robust Entanglement through Macroscopic Quantum Jumps

We propose an entanglement generation scheme that requires neither the coherent evolution of a quantum system nor the detection of single photons. Instead, the desired state is heralded by a {\em macroscopic} quantum jump. Macroscopic quantum jumps manifest themselves as a random telegraph signal with long intervals of intense fluorescence (light periods) interrupted by the complete absence of photons (dark periods). Here we show that a system of two atoms trapped inside an optical cavity can be designed such that a dark period prepares the atoms in a maximally entangled ground state. Achieving fidelities above 0.9 is possible even when the single-atom cooperativity parameter C is as low as 10 and when using a photon detector with an efficiency as low as eta = 0.2.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Multi-photon entanglement from distant single photon sources on demand

We describe a scheme that allows for the generation of any desired N-photon state on demand. Under ideal conditions, this requires only N single photon sources, laser pulses and linear optics elements. First, the sources should be initialised with the help of single-qubit rotations and repeat-until-success two-qubit quantum gates [Lim et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 030305 (2005)]. Afterwards, the state of the sources can be mapped onto the state of N newly generated photons whenever needed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2005

Quantum computing without qubit-qubit interactions

Quantum computing tries to exploit entanglement and interference to process information more efficiently than the best known classical solutions. Experiments demonstrating the feasibility of this approach have already been performed. However, finding a really scalable and robust quantum computing architecture remains a challenge for both, experimentalists and theoreticians. In most setups decoherence becomes non-negligible when one tries to perform entangling gate operations using the coherent control of qubit-qubit interactions. However, in this proceedings we show that two-qubit gate operations can be implemented even without qubit-qubit interactions and review a recent quantum computing scheme by Lim et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 030505 (2005)] using only single photon sources (e.g. atom-cavity systems, NV colour centres or quantum dots) and photon pair measurements.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2005

Repeat-Until-Success quantum computing using stationary and flying qubits

We introduce an architecture for robust and scalable quantum computation using both stationary qubits (e.g. single photon sources made out of trapped atoms, molecules, ions, quantum dots, or defect centers in solids) and flying qubits (e.g. photons). Our scheme solves some of the most pressing problems in existing non-hybrid proposals, which include the difficulty of scaling conventional stationary qubit approaches, and the lack of practical means for storing single photons in linear optics setups. We combine elements of two previous proposals for distributed quantum computing, namely the efficient photon-loss tolerant build up of cluster states by Barrett and Kok [Phys. Rev. A 71, 060310(R) (2005)] with the idea of Repeat-Until-Success (RUS) quantum computing by Lim et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 030505 (2005)]. This idea can be used to perform eventually deterministic two-qubit logic gates on spatially separated stationary qubits via photon pair measurements. Under non-ideal conditions, where photon loss is a possibility, the resulting gates can still be used to build graph states for one-way quantum computing. In this paper, we describe the RUS method, present possible experimental realizations, and analyse the generation of graph states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2005

Decoherence-free dynamical and geometrical entangling phase gates

It is shown that entangling two-qubit phase gates for quantum computation with atoms inside a resonant optical cavity can be generated via common laser addressing, essentially, within one step. The obtained dynamical or geometrical phases are produced by an evolution that is robust against dissipation in form of spontaneous emission from the atoms and the cavity and demonstrates resilience against fluctuations of control parameters. This is achieved by using the setup introduced by Pachos and Walther [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 187903 (2002)] and employing entangling Raman- or STIRAP-like transitions that restrict the time evolution of the system onto stable ground states.

quant-ph↗