arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D. Voigt.
We present a general theoretical method to generate maximally entangled mixed states of a pair of photons initially prepared in the singlet polarization state. This method requires only local operations upon a single photon of the pair and exploits spatial degrees of freedom to induce decoherence. We report also experimental confirmation of these theoretical results.
We report experimental results on mixed-state generation by multiple scattering of polarization-entangled photon pairs created from parametric down-conversion. By using a large variety of scattering optical systems we have experimentally obtained entangled mixed states that lie upon and below the Werner curve in the linear entropy-tangle plane. We have also introduced a simple phenomenological model built on the analogy between classical polarization optics and quantum maps. Theoretical predictions from such model are in full agreement with our experimental findings.
We show that it is possible to achieve maximally entangled mixed states of two qubits from the singlet state via the action of local non-trace-preserving quantum channels. Moreover, we present a simple, feasible linear optical implementation of one of such channels.
We show that the method of maximum-likelihood estimation, recently introduced in the context of quantum process tomography, can be applied to the determination of Mueller matrices characterizing the polarization properties of classical optical systems. Contrary to linear reconstruction algorithms, the proposed method yields physically acceptable Mueller matrices even in presence of uncontrolled experimental errors. We illustrate the method on the case of an unphysical measured Mueller matrix taken from the literature.
The singular nature of a non-integer spiral phase plate allows easy manipulation of spatial degrees of freedom of photon states. Using two such devices, we have observed very high dimensional (D > 3700) spatial entanglement of twin photons generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion.
Using a technique based on production of ion Coulomb crystals, the isotope shifts of the 4s2 1S0 -> 4s5p 1P1 transition for all naturally occurring isotopes of calcium as well as the hyperfine splitting of the 4s5p 1P1 state in Ca-43 have been measured. The field shift and specific mass shift coefficients as well as the hyperfine structure constants for Ca-43 have been derived from the data.
We report the direct observation of a novel type of rainbow caustic. In contrast to known examples, this caustic originates from a dissipative, stochastic process. We have observed this using cold ^{87}Rb atoms bouncing inelastically on an evanescent-wave atom mirror. The caustic appears as a sharp peak at the lower edge of the asymmetric velocity distribution of the bouncing atoms. The stochastic process is a spontaneous Raman transition due to photon scattering during the bounce. The results are in good agreement with a classical calculation.
We report on experiments on an evanescent-wave mirror for cold $^{87}$Rb atoms. Measurements of the bouncing fraction show the importance of the Van der Waals attraction to the surface. We have directly observed radiation pressure parallel to the surface, exerted on the atoms by the evanescent-wave mirror. We analyze the radiation pressure by imaging the motion of the atom cloud after the bounce. The number of photon recoils ranges from 2 to 31. This is independent of laser power, inversely proportional to the detuning and proportional to the evanescent-wave decay length. By operating the mirror on an open transition, we have also observed atoms that bounce inelastically due to a spontaneous Raman transition. The observed distributions consist of a dense peak at the minimum velocity and a long tail of faster atoms, showing that the transition is a stochastic process with a strong preference to occur near the turning point of the bounce.
We have characterized a semiconductor amplifier laser system which provides up to 200mW output after a single-mode optical fiber at 780nm wavelength. The system is based on a tapered semiconductor gain element, which amplifies the output of a narrow-linewidth diode laser. Gain and saturation are discussed as a function of operating temperature and injection current. The spectral properties of the amplifier are investigated with a grating spectrometer. Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) causes a spectral background with a width of 4nm FWHM. The ASE background was suppressed to below our detection limit by a proper choice of operating current and temperature, and by sending the light through a single-mode optical fiber. The final ASE spectral density was less than 0.1nW/MHz, i.e. less than 0.2 % of the optical power. Related to an optical transition linewidth of $Γ/2π=6$ MHz for rubidium, this gives a background suppression of better than -82dB. An indication of the beam quality is provided by the fiber coupling efficiency up to 59 %. The application of the amplifier system as a laser source for atom optical experiments is discussed.
We report a direct observation of radiation pressure, exerted on cold rubidium atoms while bouncing on an evanescent-wave atom mirror. We analyze the radiation pressure by imaging the motion of the atoms after the bounce. The number of absorbed photons is measured for laser detunings ranging from {190 MHz} to {1.4 GHz} and for angles from {0.9 mrad} to {24 mrad} above the critical angle of total internal reflection. Depending on these settings, we find velocity changes parallel with the mirror surface, ranging from 1 to {18 cm/s}. This corresponds to 2 to 31 photon recoils per atom. These results are independent of the evanescent-wave optical power.
We discuss an experimental scheme to create a low-dimensional gas of ultracold atoms, based on inelastic bouncing on an evanescent-wave mirror. Close to the turning point of the mirror, the atoms are transferred into an optical dipole trap. This scheme can compress the phase-space density and can ultimately yield an optically-driven atom laser. An important issue is the suppression of photon scattering due to ``cross-talk'' between the mirror potential and the trapping potential. We propose that for alkali atoms the photon scattering rate can be suppressed by several orders of magnitude if the atoms are decoupled from the evanescent-wave light. We discuss how such dark states can be achieved by making use of circularly-polarized evanescent waves.