arXiv subjects

J. Schmiedmayer

Publications and source records attributed to J. Schmiedmayer.

71 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

Quantum Scattering in Quasi-1D Cylindrical Confinement

Finite size effects alter not only the energy levels of small systems, but can also lead to new effective interactions within these systems. Here the problem of low energy quantum scattering by a spherically symmetric short range potential in the presence of a general cylindrical confinement is investigated. A Green's function formalism is developed which accounts for the full 3D nature of the scattering potential by incorporating all phase-shifts and their couplings. This quasi-1D geometry gives rise to scattering resonances and weakly localized states, whose binding energies and wavefunctions can be systematically calculated. Possible applications include e.g. impurity scattering in ballistic quasi-1D quantum wires in mesoscopic systems and in atomic matter wave guides. In the particular case of parabolic confinement, the present formalism can also be applied to pair collision processes such as two-body interactions. Weakly bound pairs and quasi-molecules induced by the confinement and having zero or higher orbital angular momentum can be predicted, such as p- and d-wave pairings.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2005

Ultracold atoms in optical lattices with random on-site interactions

We consider the physics of lattice bosons affected by disordered on-site interparticle interactions. Characteristic qualitative changes in the zero temperature phase diagram are observed when compared to the case of randomness in the chemical potential. The Mott-insulating regions shrink and eventually vanish for any finite disorder strength beyond a sufficiently large filling factor. Furthermore, at low values of the chemical potential both the superfluid and Mott insulator are stable towards formation of a Bose glass leading to a possibly non-trivial tricritical point. We discuss feasible experimental realizations of our scenario in the context of ultracold atoms on optical lattices.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2005

A simple quantum gate with atom chips

We present a simple scheme for implementing an atomic phase gate using two degrees of freedom for each atom and discuss its realization with cold rubidium atoms on atom chips. We investigate the performance of this collisional phase gate and show that gate operations with high fidelity can be realized in magnetic traps that are currently available on atom chips.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2005

Disorder Potentials near Lithographically Fabricated Atom Chips

We show that previously observed large disorder potentials in magnetic microtraps for neutral atoms are reduced by about two orders of magnitude when using atom chips with lithographically fabricated high quality gold layers. Using one dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates, we probe the remaining magnetic field variations at surface distances down to a few microns. Measurements on a 100 um wide wire imply that residual variations of the current flow result from local properties of the wire.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2004

Atom Chips: Fabrication and Thermal Properties

Neutral atoms can be trapped and manipulated with surface mounted microscopic current carrying and charged structures. We present a lithographic fabrication process for such atom chips based on evaporated metal films. The size limit of this process is below 1$μ$m. At room temperature, thin wires can carry more than 10$^7$A/cm$^2$ current density and voltages of more than 500V. Extensive test measurements for different substrates and metal thicknesses (up to 5 $μ$m) are compared to models for the heating characteristics of the microscopic wires. Among the materials tested, we find that Si is the best suited substrate for atom chips.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2003

Rydberg Atoms in Magnetic Quadrupole Traps

We investigate the electronic structure and properties of Rydberg atoms exposed to a magnetic quadrupole field. It is shown that the spatial as well as generalized time reversal symmetries lead to a two-fold degeneracy of the electronic states in the presence of the external field. A delicate interplay between the Coulomb and magnetic interactions in the inhomogeneous field leads to an unusual weak field splitting of the energy levels as well as complex spatial patterns of the corresponding spin polarization density of individual Rydberg states. Remarkably the magnetic quadrupole field induces a permanent electric dipole moment of the atom.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2003

An atom fiber for guiding cold neutral atoms

We present an omnidirectional matter wave guide on an atom chip. The rotational symmetry of the guide is maintained by a combination of two current carrying wires and a bias field pointing perpendicular to the chip surface. We demonstrate guiding of thermal atoms around more than two complete turns along a spiral shaped 25mm long curved path (curve radii down to 200$μ$m) at various atom--surface distances (35-450$μ$m). An extension of the scheme for the guiding of Bose-Einstein condensates is outlined.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

Optimized U-MOT for experiments with ultracold atoms near surfaces

We present an integrated wire-based magnetooptical trap for the simplified trapping and cooling of large numbers of neutral atoms near material surfaces. With a modified U-shaped current-carrying Cu structure we collect $>3\times 10^8$ $^{87}$Rb atoms in a mirror MOT without using quadrupole coils. These atoms are subsequently loaded to a Z-wire trap where they are evaporatively cooled to a Bose-Einstein condensate close to the surface.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2003

Trapping and manipulating neutral atoms with electrostatic fields

We report on experiments with cold thermal $^7$Li atoms confined in combined magnetic and electric potentials. A novel type of three-dimensional trap was formed by modulating a magnetic guide using electrostatic fields. We observed atoms trapped in a string of up to six individual such traps, a controlled transport of an atomic cloud over a distance of 400$μ$m, and a dynamic splitting of a single trap into a double well potential. Applications for quantum information processing are discussed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

Microtraps and Atom Chips: Toolboxes for Cold Atom Physics

Magnetic microtraps and Atom Chips are safe, small-scale, reliable and flexible tools to prepare ultra-cold and degenerate atom clouds as sources for various atom-optical experiments. We present an overview of the possibilities of the devices and indicate how a microtrap can be used to prepare and launch a Bose-Einstein condensate for use in an atom clock or an interferometer.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2002

Time-Dependent Trapping of Solitons in Bose-Einstein Condensates

We study the influence of a time-dependent potential on the motion of solitons in a quasi one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate by solving the corresponding Gross-Pitaevskii equation. For a suitable choice of the external potentials as well as the initial soliton characteristics time-dependent trapping of the soliton in a prescribed subarea of the condensate can be achieved. Adiabatic perturbation theory is shown to work remarkably well for large switching on times of the trapping potential and allows to perform a detailed study of the degree of trapping in the complete phase space of the soliton center. A remarkable spiral pattern of the degree of trapping as a function of the soliton characteristics is observed and explained.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2002

Failure of geometric electromagnetism in the adiabatic vector Kepler problem

The magnetic moment of a particle orbiting a straight current-carrying wire may precess rapidly enough in the wire's magnetic field to justify an adiabatic approximation, eliminating the rapid time dependence of the magnetic moment and leaving only the particle position as a slow degree of freedom. To zeroth order in the adiabatic expansion, the orbits of the particle in the plane perpendicular to the wire are Keplerian ellipses. Higher order post-adiabatic corrections make the orbits precess, but recent analysis of this `vector Kepler problem' has shown that the effective Hamiltonian incorporating a post-adiabatic scalar potential (`geometric electromagnetism') fails to predict the precession correctly, while a heuristic alternative succeeds. In this paper we resolve the apparent failure of the post-adiabatic approximation, by pointing out that the correct second-order analysis produces a third Hamiltonian, in which geometric electromagnetism is supplemented by a tensor potential. The heuristic Hamiltonian of Schmiedmayer and Scrinzi is then shown to be a canonical transformation of the correct adiabatic Hamiltonian, to second order. The transformation has the important advantage of removing a $1/r^3$ singularity which is an artifact of the adiabatic approximation.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2002

Bose-Einstein Condensation in a simple Microtrap

A Bose-Einstein condensate is created in a simple and robust miniature Ioffe-Pritchard trap, the so-called Z trap. This trap follows from the mere combination of a Z-shaped current carrying wire and a homogeneous bias field. The experimental procedure allows condensation of typically 3x10^5 Rb-87 atoms in the |F=2, m_F=2> state close to any mirroring surface, irrespective of its structure, thus it is ideally suited as a source for cold atom physics near surfaces.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2000

Observation of decoherence with a movable mirror

Recently it has been proposed to use parity as a measure of the mechanism behind decoherence or the transformation from quantum to classical. Here, we show that the proposed experiment is more feasible than previously thought, as even an initial thermal state would exhibit the hypothesized symmetry breaking.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1999

Filtered Talbot lens: Producing $λ/2n$-periodic atomic patterns with standing wave fields having period $λ$

We propose a scheme to create high-contrast, periodic atom density distributions having period $λ/2n$ using the Talbot effect, where $% λ$ is the wave length of the optical fields that scatter the atoms and $n$ is a positive integer. This {\em filtered Talbot lens} is comprised of two standing-wave optical fields. An atomic beam propagates perpendicular to the fields. The first field, which is far-detuned from the atomic transition frequency, acts as an array of lenses that focuses the atoms. The second field, positioned at the atom optical focus of the first, is resonant with the atomic transition frequency and acts as an amplitude mask, leaving unperturbed only those atoms that pass through its nodes. At distances following the interaction with the second field that are equal to an integral fraction of the Talbot length, atomic density gratings having period $λ/2n$ are formed.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv1999

On the observation of decoherence with a movable mirror

Following almost a century of debate on possible `independent of measurement' elements of reality, or `induced' elements of reality - originally invoked as an ad-hoc collapse postulate, we propose a novel line of interference experiments which may be able to examine the regime of induced elements of reality. At the basis of the proposed experiment, lies the hypothesis that all models of 'induced' elements of reality should exhibit symmetry breaking within quantum evolution. The described {\em symmetry experiment} is thus aimed at being able to detect and resolve symmetry breaking signatures.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1999

Quantum gates with neutral atoms: Controlling collisional interactions in time dependent traps

We theoretically study specific schemes for performing a fundamental two-qubit quantum gate via controlled atomic collisions by switching microscopic potentials. In particular we calculate the fidelity of a gate operation for a configuration where a potential barrier between two atoms is instantaneously removed and restored after a certain time. Possible implementations could be based on microtraps created by magnetic and electric fields, or potentials induced by laser light.

quant-ph↗