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J. V. Porto

Publications and source records attributed to J. V. Porto.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2018

Single-photon bound states in atomic ensembles

We illustrate the existence of single-excitation bound states for propagating photons interacting with $N$ two-level atoms. These bound states can be calculated from an effective spin model, and their existence relies on dissipation in the system. The appearance of these bound states is in a one-to-one correspondence with zeros in the single-photon transmission and with divergent bunching in the second-order photon-photon correlation function. We also formulate a dissipative version of Levinson's theorem for this system by looking at the relation between the number of bound states and the winding number of the transmission phases. This theorem allows a direct experimental measurement of the number of bound states using the measured transmission phases.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2018

Optimization of photon storage fidelity in ordered atomic arrays

A major application for atomic ensembles consists of a quantum memory for light, in which an optical state can be reversibly converted to a collective atomic excitation on demand. There exists a well-known fundamental bound on the storage error, when the ensemble is describable by a continuous medium governed by the Maxwell-Bloch equations. The validity of this model can break down, however, in systems such as dense, ordered atomic arrays, where strong interference in emission can give rise to phenomena such as subradiance and "selective" radiance. Here, we develop a general formalism that finds the maximum storage efficiency for a collection of atoms with discrete, known positions, and a given spatial mode in which an optical field is sent. As an example, we apply this technique to study a finite two-dimensional square array of atoms. We show that such a system enables a storage error that scales with atom number $N_\mathrm{a}$ like $\sim (\log N_\mathrm{a})^2/N_\mathrm{a}^2$, and that, remarkably, an array of just $4 \times 4$ atoms in principle allows for an efficiency comparable to a disordered ensemble with optical depth of around 600.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2018

A low-steering piezo-driven mirror

We present a piezo-driven translatable mirror with excellent pointing stability, capable of driving at frequencies up to tens of kilohertz. Our system uses a tripod of piezo actuators with independently controllable drive voltages, where the ratios of the individual drive voltages are tuned to minimize residual tilting. Attached to a standard {\varnothing}= 12.7mm mirror, the system has a resonance-free mechanical bandwidth up to 51kHz, with displacements up to 2μm at 8kHz. The maximum static steering error is 5.5rad per micrometer displaced and the dynamic steering error is lower than 0.6rad/μm. This simple design should be useful for a large set of optical applications where tilt-free displacements are required, and we demonstrate its application in an ensemble of cold atoms trapped in periodically driven optical lattices.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2018

Coherent optical nano-tweezers for ultra-cold atoms

There has been a recent surge of interest and progress in creating subwavelength free-space optical potentials for ultra-cold atoms. A key open question is whether geometric potentials, which are repulsive and ubiquitous in the creation of subwavelength free-space potentials, forbid the creation of narrow traps with long lifetimes. Here, we show that it is possible to create such traps. We propose two schemes for realizing subwavelength traps and demonstrate their superiority over existing proposals. We analyze the lifetime of atoms in such traps and show that long-lived bound states are possible. This work opens a new frontier for the subwavelength control and manipulation of ultracold matter, with applications in quantum chemistry and quantum simulation.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2018

Optical Lattice with Torus Topology

We propose an experimental scheme to construct an optical lattice where the atoms are confined to the surface of a torus. This construction can be realized with spatially shaped laser beams which could be realized with recently developed high resolution imaging techniques. We numerically study the feasibility of this proposal by calculating the tunneling strengths for atoms in the torus lattice. To illustrate the non-trivial role of topology in atomic dynamics on the torus, we study the quantized superfluid currents and fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states on such a structure. For FQH states, we numerically investigate the robustness of the topological degeneracy and propose an experimental way to detect such a degeneracy. Our scheme for torus construction can be generalized to Riemann surfaces with higher genus for exploration of richer topological physics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗
arXiv2017

Spontaneous avalanche dephasing in large Rydberg ensembles

Strong dipole-exchange interactions due to spontaneously produced contaminant states can trigger rapid dephasing in many-body Rydberg ensembles [E. Goldschmidt et al., PRL 116, 113001 (2016)]. Such broadening has serious implications for many proposals to coherently use Rydberg interactions, particularly Rydberg dressing proposals. The dephasing arises as a runaway process where the production of the first contaminant atoms facilitates the creation of more contaminant atoms. Here we study the time dependence of this process with stroboscopic approaches. Using a pump-probe technique, we create an excess "pump" Rydberg population and probe its effect with a different "probe" Rydberg transition. We observe a reduced resonant pumping rate and an enhancement of the excitation on both sides of the transition as atoms are added to the pump state. We also observe a timescale for population growth significantly shorter than predicted by homogeneous mean-field models, as expected from a clustered growth mechanism where high-order correlations dominate the dynamics. These results support earlier works and confirm that the time scale for the onset of dephasing is reduced by a factor which scales as the inverse of the atom number. In addition, we discuss several approaches to minimize these effects of spontaneous broadening, including stroboscopic techniques and operating at cryogenic temperatures. It is challenging to avoid the unwanted broadening effects, but under some conditions they can be mitigated.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Anomalous broadening in driven dissipative Rydberg systems

We observe interaction-induced broadening of the two-photon 5s-18s transition in 87Rb atoms trapped in a 3D optical lattice. The measured linewidth increases by nearly two orders of magnitude with increasing atomic density and excitation strength, with corresponding suppression of resonant scattering and enhancement of off-resonant scattering. We attribute the increased linewidth to resonant dipole-dipole interactions of 18s atoms with spontaneously created populations of nearby np states. Over a range of initial atomic densities and excitation strengths, the transition width is described by a single function of the steady-state density of Rydberg atoms, and the observed resonant excitation rate corresponds to that of a two-level system with the measured, rather than natural, linewidth. The broadening mechanism observed here is likely to have negative implications for many proposals with coherently interacting Rydberg atoms.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2015

Degenerate Bose-Fermi mixtures of rubidium and ytterbium

We report the first realization of a quantum degenerate mixture of bosonic $^{87}$Rb and fermionic $^{171}$Yb atoms in a hybrid optical dipole trap with a tunable, species-dependent trapping potential. $^{87}$Rb is shown to be a viable refrigerant for the non-interacting $^{171}$Yb atoms, cooling up to $2.4 \times 10^5$ $^{171}$Yb atoms to a temperature of $T/T_F = 0.16(2) $ while simultaneously forming a $^{87}$Rb BEC of $3.5 \times 10^5$ atoms. Furthermore we demonstrate our ability to independently tailor the potentials for each species, which paves the way for studying impurities immersed in a Bose gas.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2015

Magic wavelengths for the $5s-18s$ transition in rubidium

Magic wavelengths, for which there is no differential ac Stark shift for the ground and excited state of the atom, allow trapping of excited Rydberg atoms without broadening the optical transition. This is an important tool for implementing quantum gates and other quantum information protocols with Rydberg atoms, and reliable theoretical methods to find such magic wavelengths are thus extremely useful. We use a high-precision all-order method to calculate magic wavelengths for the $5s-18s$ transition of rubidium, and compare the calculation to experiment by measuring the light shift for atoms held in an optical dipole trap at a range of wavelengths near a calculated magic value.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2014

2D Superexchange mediated magnetization dynamics in an optical lattice

The competition of magnetic exchange interactions and tunneling underlies many complex quantum phenomena observed in real materials. We study non-equilibrium magnetization dynamics in an extended 2D system by loading effective spin-1/2 bosons into a spin-dependent optical lattice, and we use the lattice to separately control the resonance conditions for tunneling and superexchange. After preparing a non-equilibrium anti-ferromagnetically ordered state, we observe relaxation dynamics governed by two well-separated rates, which scale with the underlying Hamiltonian parameters associated with superexchange and tunneling. Remarkably, with tunneling off-resonantly suppressed, we are able to observe superexchange dominated dynamics over two orders of magnitude in magnetic coupling strength, despite the presence of vacancies. In this regime, the measured timescales are in agreement with simple theoretical estimates, but the detailed dynamics of this 2D, strongly correlated, and far-from-equilibrium quantum system remain out of reach of current computational techniques.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗
arXiv2013

Continuous all-optical deceleration and single-photon cooling of molecular beams

Ultracold molecular gases are promising as an avenue to rich many-body physics, quantum chemistry, quantum information, and precision measurements. This richness, which flows from the complex internal structure of molecules, makes the creation of ultracold molecular gases using traditional methods (laser plus evaporative cooling) a challenge, in particular due to the spontaneous decay of molecules into dark states. We propose a way to circumvent this key bottleneck using an all-optical method for decelerating molecules using stimulated absorption and emission with a single ultrafast laser. We further describe single-photon cooling of the decelerating molecules that exploits their high dark state pumping rates, turning the principal obstacle to molecular laser cooling into an advantage. Cooling and deceleration may be applied simultaneously and continuously to load molecules into a trap. We discuss implementation details including multi-level numerical simulations of strontium monohydride (SrH). These techniques are applicable to a large number of molecular species and atoms with the only requirement being an electric dipole transition that can be accessed with an ultrafast laser.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2013

Quantum interference and light polarization effects in unresolvable atomic lines: application to a precise measurement of the 6,7 Li D2 lines

We characterize the effect of quantum interference on the line shapes and measured line positions in atomic spectra. These effects, which occur when the excited state splittings are of order the excited state line widths, represent an overlooked but significant systematic effect. We show that excited state interference gives rise to non-Lorenztian line shapes that depend on excitation polarization, and we present expressions for the corrected line shapes. We present spectra of 6,7 Li D lines taken at multiple excitation laser polarizations and show that failure to account for interference changes the inferred line strengths and shifts the line centers by as much as 1 MHz. Using the correct lineshape, we determine absolute optical transition frequencies with an uncertainty of <= 25kHz and provide an improved determination of the difference in mean square nuclear charge radii between 6 Li and 7 Li. This analysis should be important for a number of high resolution spectral measurements that include partially resolvable atomic lines.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2013

Loop Structure Stability of a Double-Well-Lattice BEC

In this work, we consider excited many-body mean-field states of bosons in a double-well optical lattice by investigating stationary Bloch solutions to the non-linear equations of motion. We show that, for any positive interaction strength, a loop structure emerges at the edge of the band structure whose existence is entirely due to interactions. This can be contrasted to the case of a conventional optical (Bravais) lattice where a loop appears only above a critical repulsive interaction strength. Motivated by the possibility of realizing such non-linear Bloch states experimentally, we analyze the collective excitations about these non-linear stationary states and thereby establish conditions for the system's energetic and dynamical stability. We find that there are regimes that are dynamically stable and thus apt to be realized experimentally.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗
arXiv2012

Dynamically Slowed Collapse of a Bose-Einstein Condensate with Negative Scattering Length

We rapidly change the scattering length a_s of a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate by means of a Feshbach resonance, simultaneously releasing the condensate from its harmonic trapping potential. When a_s is changed from positive to negative, the subsequent collapse of the condensate is stabilized by the kinetic energy imparted during the release, resulting in a deceleration of the loss rate near the resonance. We also observe an increase in the Thomas-Fermi radius, near the resonance, that cannot be understood in terms of a simple scaling model. Instead, we describe this behavior using the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, including three-body recombination, and hypothesize that the increase in cloud radius is due to the formation of concentric shells.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗
arXiv2012

Precision Measurement of Transition Matrix Elements via Light Shift Cancellation

We present a method for accurate determination of atomic transition matrix elements at the 10^{-3} level. Measurements of the ac Stark (light) shift around "magic-zero" wavelengths, where the light shift vanishes, provide precise constraints on the matrix elements. We make the first measurement of the 5s-6p matrix elements in rubidium by measuring the light shift around the 421 nm and 423 nm zeros with a sequence of standing wave pulses. In conjunction with existing theoretical and experimental data, we find 0.3236(9) e a_0 and 0.5230(8) e a_0 for the 5s-6p_{1/2} and 5s-6p_{3/2} elements, respectively, an order of magnitude more accurate than the best theoretical values. This technique can provide needed, accurate matrix elements for many atoms, including those used in atomic clocks, tests of fundamental symmetries, and quantum information.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2011

Interaction-induced excited-band condensate in a double-well optical lattice

We show theoretically that interaction effects in a double-well optical lattice can induce condensates in an excited band. For a symmetric double-well lattice, bosons condense into the bottom of the excited band at the edge of the Brillouin Zone if the chemical potential is above a critical value. For an asymmetric lattice, a condensate with zero momentum is automatically induced in the excited band by the condensate in the lowest band. This is due to a combined effect of interaction and lattice potential, which reduces the band gap and breaks the inversion symmetry. Our work can be generalized to a superlattice composed of multiple-well potentials at each lattice site, where condensates can be induced in even higher bands.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗
arXiv2011

Condensates induced by interband coupling in a double-well lattice

We predict novel inter-band physics for bosons in a double-well lattice. An intrinsic coupling between the s and px band due to interaction gives rise to larger Mott regions on the phase diagram at even fillings than the ones at odd fillings. On the other hand, the ground state can form various types of condensates, including a mixture of single-particle condensates of both bands, a mixture of a single-particle condensate of one band and a pair-condensate of the other band, and a pair-condensate composed of one particle from one band and one hole from the other band. The predicted phenomena should be observable in current experiments on double-well optical lattices.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗