arXiv subjects

Benjamin L. Lev

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin L. Lev.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A cryogenic apparatus for coupling two-dimensional materials to a confocal multimode optical cavity

Two-dimensional van der Waals materials exhibit a variety of correlated electron phases, and optical driving offers a promising route toward manipulating them. For example, cavity-enhanced, continuous-wave (CW) Raman excitation has been suggested as a way to coherently and superradiantly populate phonons or charge density waves via material excitons. A steady-state phonon population may be sustained with sufficiently strong electron-phonon coupling to drive novel collective response. We describe an apparatus built to meet the requirements of such an experimental program: Namely, an ultrahigh-vacuum system housing a length-tunable confocal Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity with an intracavity sample, both cryogenically cooled and stabilized against vibrations. A four-axis nanopositioner aligns the sample and supports electrical leads for sample carrier density modulation and transport measurements. Transmission through the multimode cavity enables in situ sample imaging for alignment; the sample is a transition metal dichalcogenide in this work. Operating near the confocal geometry concentrates the optical field into a localized supermode that substantially enhances light-matter coupling. This enhancement is preserved despite the millimeter-scale cavity length, which provides room for sample alignment and exchange.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Superradiant Charge Density Waves in a Driven Cavity-Matter Hybrid

Optical cavities enable strong, long-range, light-matter interactions that can drive collective ordering phenomena, such as superradiant self-organization in ultracold atomic gases. Extending these ideas to solid-state electron systems could enable continuous-wave optical control of electronic order, but is impeded by the mismatch between optical wavelengths and electronic length scales. Here, we propose a platform for realizing superradiant charge density waves (sCDWs) in doped, driven transition-metal dichalcogenides coupled to an optical cavity. A nanoscale grating generates electric fields at large in-plane optical momenta, allowing cavity photons to couple efficiently to electronic density fluctuations through exciton-polaron processes. Using a linear-stability analysis, we determine the threshold for superradiant ordering and map out the driven phase diagram. We show that tuning the grating periodicity to match the enhanced electronic density fluctuations - such as those near Wigner crystallization - substantially lowers the required pump intensity. Our results establish a novel route toward cavity-controlled electronic order in quantum materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Effects of intertube dipole-dipole interactions in nearly integrable one-dimensional $^{162}$Dy gases

We study the effects of the intertube dipole-dipole interactions (DDI) in recent experiments with arrays of nearly integrable one-dimensional (1D) dipolar Bose gases of $^{162}$Dy atoms. An earlier theoretical modeling ignored those interactions, which we include here via a modification of the 1D confining potentials. We investigate the effects of the intertube DDI both during the state preparation and during the measurements of the rapidity distributions. We explore how the strength of the contact interactions and the magnetic field angles modify the intertube DDI corrections. We find that those corrections slightly change both the properties of the equilibrium state and the rapidity measurements. Remarkably, however, the changes nearly cancel each other, resulting in measured rapidity distributions that are very close to those predicted in the absence of the intertube DDI.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

High-capacity associative memory in a quantum-optical spin glass

The Hopfield model describes a neural network that stores memories using all-to-all-coupled spins. Memory patterns are recalled under equilibrium dynamics. Storing too many patterns breaks the associative recall process because frustration causes an exponential number of spurious patterns to arise as the network becomes a spin glass. Despite this, memory recall in a spin glass can be restored, and even enhanced, under quantum-optical nonequilibrium dynamics because spurious patterns can now serve as reliable memories. We experimentally observe associative memory with high storage capacity in a driven-dissipative spin glass made of atoms and photons. The capacity surpasses the Hopfield limit by up to seven-fold in a sixteen-spin network. Atomic motion boosts capacity by dynamically modifying connectivity akin to short-term synaptic plasticity in neural networks, realizing a precursor to learning in a quantum-optical system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

A multimode cavity QED Ising spin glass

We realize a driven-dissipative Ising spin glass using cavity QED in a novel ``4/7" multimode geometry. Gases of ultracold atoms trapped within the cavity by optical tweezers serve as effective spins. They are coupled via randomly signed, all-to-all Ising cavity-mediated interactions. Networks of up to n = 25 spins are holographically imaged via cavity emission. The system is driven through a frustrated transverse-field Ising transition, and we show that the entropy of the spin glass states depends on the rate at which the transition is crossed. Despite being intrinsically nonequilibrium, the system exhibits phenomena associated with Parisi's theory of equilibrium spin glasses, namely replica symmetry breaking (RSB) and ultrametric structure. For system sizes up to n = 16, we measure the Parisi function q(x), Edwards-Anderson overlap q_EA, and ultrametricity K-correlator; all indicate a deeply ordered spin glass under RSB. The system can serve as an associative memory and enable aging and rejuvenation studies in driven-dissipative spin glasses at the microscopic level.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Raman-phonon-polariton condensation in a transversely pumped cavity

Phonon polaritons are hybrid states of light and matter that are typically realised when optically active phonons couple strongly to photons. We suggest a new approach to realising phonon polaritons, by employing a transverse-pumping Raman scheme, as used in experiments on cold atoms in optical cavities. This approach allows hybridisation between an optical cavity mode and any Raman-active phonon mode. Moreover, this approach enables one to tune the effective phonon-photon coupling by changing the strength of the transverse pumping light. We show that such a system may realise a phonon-polariton condensate. To do this, we find the stationary states and use Floquet theory to determine their stability. We thus identify distinct superradiant and lasing states in which the polariton modes are macroscopically populated. We map out the phase diagram of these states as a function of pump frequencies and strengths. Using parameters for transition metal dichalcogenides, we show that realisation of these phases may be practicably obtainable. The ability to manipulate phonon mode frequencies and attain steady-state populations of selected phonon modes provides a new tool for engineering correlated states of electrons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Directly observing replica symmetry breaking in a vector quantum-optical spin glass

Spin glasses are quintessential examples of complex matter. Although much about their order remains uncertain, abstract models of them inform, e.g., the classification of combinatorial optimization problems, the magnetic ordering in metals with impurities, and artificial intelligence -- where they form a mathematical basis for neural network computing and brain modeling. We demonstrate the ability of an active quantum gas microscope to realize a spin glass of a novel driven-dissipative and vector form. By microscopically visualizing its glassy spin states, the technique allows us to directly measure replica symmetry breaking and the resulting ultrametric hierarchical structure. Ultrametricity is known to be emergent in models of evolution, protein folding, climate change, and infinite-range equilibrium spin glasses; this work shows it to be directly observable in a physically realized system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Phantom energy in the nonlinear response of a quantum many-body scar state

Quantum many-body scars are notable as nonthermal states that exist at high energies. Here, we use attractively interacting dysprosium gases to create scar states that are stable enough be driven into a strongly nonlinear regime while retaining their character. We uncover an emergent nonlinear many-body phenomenon, the effective transmutation of attractive interactions into repulsive interactions. We measure how the kinetic and total energies evolve after quenching the confining potential. Although the bare interactions are attractive, the low-energy degrees of freedom evolve as if they repel each other: Thus, their kinetic energy paradoxically decreases as the gas is compressed. The missing ``phantom'' energy is quantified by benchmarking our experimental results against generalized hydrodynamics calculations. We present evidence that the missing kinetic energy is stored in very high-momentum modes.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2023

Entanglement and replica symmetry breaking in a driven-dissipative quantum spin glass

We describe simulations of the quantum dynamics of a confocal cavity QED system that realizes an intrinsically driven-dissipative spin glass. A close connection between open quantum dynamics and replica symmetry breaking is established, in which individual quantum trajectories are the replicas. We observe that entanglement plays an important role in the emergence of replica symmetry breaking in a fully connected, frustrated spin network of up to fifteen spin-1/2 particles. Quantum trajectories of entangled spins reach steady-state spin configurations of lower energy than that of semiclassical trajectories. Cavity emission allows monitoring of the continuous stochastic evolution of spin configurations, while backaction from this projects entangled states into states of broken Ising and replica symmetry. The emergence of spin glass order manifests itself through the simultaneous absence of magnetization and the presence of nontrivial spin overlap density distributions among replicas. Moreover, these overlaps reveal incipient ultrametric order, in line with the Parisi RSB solution ansatz for the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model. A nonthermal Parisi order parameter distribution, however, highlights the driven-dissipative nature of this quantum optical spin glass. This practicable system could serve as a testbed for exploring how quantum effects enrich the physics of spin glasses.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Rapidity and momentum distributions of 1D dipolar quantum gases

We explore the effect of tunable integrability breaking dipole-dipole interactions in the equilibrium states of highly magnetic 1D Bose gases of dysprosium at low temperatures. We experimentally observe that in the strongly correlated Tonks-Girardeau regime, rapidity and momentum distributions are nearly unaffected by the dipolar interactions. By contrast, we also observe that significant changes of these distributions occur when decreasing the strength of the contact interactions. We show that the main experimental observations are captured by modeling the system as an array of 1D gases with only contact interactions, dressed by the contribution of the short-range part of the dipolar interactions. Improvements to theory-experiment correspondence will require new tools tailored to near-integrable models possessing both short and long-range interactions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

A high-cooperativity confocal cavity QED microscope

Cavity QED with cooperativity far greater than unity enables high-fidelity quantum sensing and information processing. The high-cooperativity regime is often reached through the use of short, single-mode resonators. More complicated multimode resonators, such as the near-confocal optical Fabry-Pérot cavity, can provide intracavity atomic imaging in addition to high cooperativity. This capability has recently proved important for exploring quantum many-body physics in the driven-dissipative setting. In this work, we show that a confocal cavity QED microscope can realize cooperativity in excess of 110. This cooperativity is on par with the very best single-mode cavities (which are far shorter) and 21$\times$ greater than single-mode resonators of similar length and mirror radii. The 1.7-$μ$m imaging resolution is naturally identical to the photon-mediated interaction range. We measure these quantities by determining the threshold of cavity superradiance when small, optically tweezed Bose-Einstein condensates are pumped at various intracavity locations. Transmission measurements of an ex situ cavity corroborate these results. We provide a theoretical description that shows how cooperativity enhancement arises from the dispersive coupling to the atoms of many near-degenerate modes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Dipolar physics: A review of experiments with magnetic quantum gases

Since the achievement of quantum degeneracy in gases of chromium atoms in 2004, the experimental investigation of ultracold gases made of highly magnetic atoms has blossomed. The field has yielded the observation of many unprecedented phenomena, in particular those in which long-range and anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions play a crucial role. In this review, we aim to present the aspects of the magnetic quantum-gas platform that make it unique for exploring ultracold and quantum physics as well as to give a thorough overview of experimental achievements.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

An optical lattice with sound

Quantised sound waves -- phonons -- govern the elastic response of crystalline materials, and also play an integral part in determining their thermodynamic properties and electrical response (e.g., by binding electrons into superconducting Cooper pairs). The physics of lattice phonons and elasticity is absent in simulators of quantum solids constructed of neutral atoms in periodic light potentials: unlike real solids, traditional optical lattices are silent because they are infinitely stiff. Optical-lattice realisations of crystals therefore lack some of the central dynamical degrees of freedom that determine the low-temperature properties of real materials. Here, we create an optical lattice with phonon modes using a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) coupled to a confocal optical resonator. Playing the role of an active quantum gas microscope, the multimode cavity QED system both images the phonons and induces the crystallisation that supports phonons via short-range, photon-mediated atom-atom interactions. Dynamical susceptibility measurements reveal the phonon dispersion relation, showing that these collective excitations exhibit a sound speed dependent on the BEC-photon coupling strength. Our results pave the way for exploring the rich physics of elasticity in quantum solids, ranging from quantum melting transitions to exotic ``fractonic'' topological defects in the quantum regime.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

A scanning quantum cryogenic atom microscope at 6 K

The Scanning Quantum Cryogenic Atom Microscope (SQCRAMscope) is a quantum sensor in which a quasi-1D quantum gas images electromagnetic fields emitted from a nearby sample. We report improvements to the microscope. Cryogen usage is reduced by replacing the liquid cryostat with a closed-cycle system and modified cold finger, and cryogenic cooling is enhanced by adding a radiation shield. The minimum accessible sample temperature is reduced from 35 K to 5.8 K while maintaining low sample vibrations. A new sample mount is easier to exchange, and quantum gas preparation is streamlined.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2020

Enhancing associative memory recall and storage capacity using confocal cavity QED

We introduce a near-term experimental platform for realizing an associative memory. It can simultaneously store many memories by using spinful bosons coupled to a degenerate multimode optical cavity. The associative memory is realized by a confocal cavity QED neural network, with the cavity modes serving as the synapses, connecting a network of superradiant atomic spin ensembles, which serve as the neurons. Memories are encoded in the connectivity matrix between the spins, and can be accessed through the input and output of patterns of light. Each aspect of the scheme is based on recently demonstrated technology using a confocal cavity and Bose-condensed atoms. Our scheme has two conceptually novel elements. First, it introduces a new form of random spin system that interpolates between a ferromagnetic and a spin-glass regime as a physical parameter is tuned---the positions of ensembles within the cavity. Second, and more importantly, the spins relax via deterministic steepest-descent dynamics, rather than Glauber dynamics. We show that this nonequilibrium quantum-optical scheme has significant advantages for associative memory over Glauber dynamics: These dynamics can enhance the network's ability to store and recall memories beyond that of the standard Hopfield model. Surprisingly, the cavity QED dynamics can retrieve memories even when the system is in the spin glass phase. Thus, the experimental platform provides a novel physical instantiation of associative memories and spin glasses as well as provides an unusual form of relaxational dynamics that is conducive to memory recall even in regimes where it was thought to be impossible.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Photon-mediated Peierls Transition of a 1D Gas in a Multimode Optical Cavity

The Peierls instability toward a charge density wave is a canonical example of phonon-driven strongly correlated physics and is intimately related to topological quantum matter and exotic superconductivity. We propose a method to realize an analogous photon-mediated Peierls transition, using a system of one-dimensional tubes of interacting Bose or Fermi atoms trapped inside a multimode confocal cavity. Pumping the cavity transversely engineers a cavity-mediated metal--to--insulator transition in the atomic system. For strongly interacting bosons in the Tonks-Girardeau limit, this transition can be understood (through fermionization) as being the Peierls instability. We extend the calculation to finite values of the interaction strength and derive analytic expressions for both the cavity field and mass gap. They display nontrivial power law dependence on the dimensionless matter-light coupling.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Creating quantum many-body scars through topological pumping of a 1D dipolar gas

Quantum many-body scars, long-lived excited states of correlated quantum chaotic systems that evade thermalization, are of great fundamental and technological interest. We create novel scar states in a bosonic 1D quantum gas of dysprosium by stabilizing a super-Tonks-Girardeau gas against collapse and thermalization with repulsive long-range dipolar interactions. Stiffness and energy density measurements show that the system is dynamically stable regardless of contact interaction strength. This enables us to cycle contact interactions from weakly to strongly repulsive, then strongly attractive, and finally weakly attractive. We show that this cycle is an energy-space topological pump (due to a quantum holonomy). Iterating this cycle offers an unexplored topological pumping method to create a hierarchy of quantum many-body scar states.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Imaging Nematic Transitions in Iron-Pnictide Superconductors with a Quantum Gas

The SQCRAMscope is a recently realized Scanning Quantum CRyogenic Atom Microscope that utilizes an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate to measure magnetic fields emanating from solid-state samples. The quantum sensor does so with unprecedented DC sensitivity at micron resolution from room-to-cryogenic temperatures. An additional advantage of the SQCRAMscope is the preservation of optical access to the sample: Magnetometry imaging of, e.g., electron transport may be performed in concert with other imaging techniques. This multimodal imaging capability can be brought to bear with great effect in the study of nematicity in iron-pnictide high-temperature superconductors, where the relationship between electronic and structural symmetry-breaking resulting in a nematic phase is under debate. Here, we combine the SQCRAMscope with an in situ microscope that measures optical birefringence near the surface. This enables simultaneous and spatially resolved detection of both bulk and near-surface manifestations of nematicity via transport and structural deformation channels, respectively. By performing the first local measurement of emergent resistivity anisotropy in iron pnictides, we observe sharp, nearly concurrent transport and structural transitions. More broadly, these measurements demonstrate the SQCRAMscope's ability to reveal important insights into the physics of complex quantum materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗