arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L. L. Sanchez-Soto.
We suggest a geometrical framework to discuss the action of slabs of negatively refracting materials. We show that these slabs generate the same orbits as normal materials, but traced out in opposite directions. This property allows us to confirm that the action of any lossless multilayer can be optically cancelled by putting it together with the multilayer constructed as the inverted mirror image, with $ε$ and $μ$ reversed in sign.
For a system of N qubits, spanning a Hilbert space of dimension d=2^N, it is known that there exists d+1 mutually unbiased bases. Different construction algorithms exist, and it is remarkable that different methods lead to sets of bases with different properties as far as separability is concerned. Here we derive the four sets of nine bases for three qubits, and show how they are unitarily related. We also briefly discuss the four-qubit case, give the entanglement structure of sixteen sets of bases,and show some of them, and their interrelations, as examples. The extension of the method to the general case of N qubits is outlined.
We reconsider the basic properties of ray-transfer matrices for first-order optical systems from a geometrical viewpoint. In the paraxial regime of scalar wave optics, there is a wide family of beams for which the action of a ray-transfer matrix can be fully represented as a bilinear transformation on the upper complex half-plane, which is the hyperbolic plane. Alternatively, this action can be also viewed in the unit disc. In both cases, we use a simple trace criterion that arranges all first-order systems in three classes with a clear geometrical meaning: they represent rotations, translations, or parallel displacements. We analyze in detail the relevant example of an optical resonator.
We present a method to characterize the polarization state of a light field in the continuous-variable regime. Instead of using the abstract formalism of SU(2) quasidistributions, we model polarization in the classical spirit by superposing two harmonic oscillators of the same angular frequency along two orthogonal axes. By describing each oscillator by a $s$-parametrized quasidistribution, we derive in a consistent way the final function for the polarization. We compare with previous approaches and discuss how this formalism works in some relevant examples.
It is well established that unpolarized light is invariant with respect to any SU(2) polarization transformation. This requirement fully characterizes the set of density matrices representing unpolarized states. We introduce the degree of polarization of a quantum state as its distance to the set of unpolarized states. We use two different candidates of distance, namely the Hilbert-Schmidt and the Bures metric, showing that they induce fundamentally different degrees of polarization. We apply these notions to relevant field states and we demonstrate that they avoid some of the problems arising with the classical definition.
We determine the range of thicknesses and refractive indices for which omnidirectional reflection from quasiperiodic multilayers occurs. By resorting to the notion of area under the transmittance curve, we assess in a systematic way the performance of the different quasiperiodic Fibonacci multilayers.
We present a self-contained discussion of the use of the transfer-matrix formalism to study one-dimensional scattering. We elaborate on the geometrical interpretation of this transfer matrix as a conformal mapping on the unit disk. By generalizing to the unit disk the idea of turns, introduced by Hamilton to represent rotations on the sphere, we develop a method to represent transfer matrices by hyperbolic turns, which can be composed by a simple parallelogramlike rule.
A complete set of d+1 mutually unbiased bases exists in a Hilbert spaces of dimension d, whenever d is a power of a prime. We discuss a simple construction of d+1 disjoint classes (each one having d-1 commuting operators) such that the corresponding eigenstates form sets of unbiased bases. Such a construction works properly for prime dimension. We investigate an alternative construction in which the real numbers that label the classes are replaced by a finite field having d elements. One of these classes is diagonal, and can be mapped to cyclic operators by means of the finite Fourier transform, which allows one to understand complementarity in a similar way as for the position-momentum pair in standard quantum mechanics. The relevant examples of two and three qubits and two qutrits are discussed in detail.
We develop a comprehensive theory of phase for finite-dimensional quantum systems. The only physical requirement we impose is that phase is complementary to amplitude. To implement this complementarity we use the notion of mutually unbiased bases, which exist for dimensions that are powers of a prime. For a d-dimensional system (qudit) we explicitly construct d+1 classes of maximally commuting operators, each one consisting of d-1 operators. One of this class consists of diagonal operators that represent amplitudes (or inversions). By the finite Fourier transform, it is mapped onto ladder operators that can be appropriately interpreted as phase variables. We discuss the examples of qubits and qutrits, and show how these results generalize previous approaches.
We resort to the concept of turns to provide a geometrical representation of the action of any lossless multilayer, which can be considered as the analogous in the unit disk to the sliding vectors in Euclidean geometry. This construction clearly shows the peculiar effects arising in the composition of multilayers. A simple optical experiment revealing the appearance of the Wigner angle is analyzed in this framework.
We consider various approaches to treat the phases of a qutrit. Although it is possible to represent qutrits in a convenient geometrical manner by resorting to a generalization of the Poincare sphere, we argue that the appropriate way of dealing with this problem is through phase operators associated with the algebra su(3). The rather unusual properties of these phases are caused by the small dimension of the system and are explored in detail. We also examine the positive operator-valued measures that can describe the qutrit phase properties.
We present a method of treating the interaction of a single three-level ion with two laser beams. The idea is to apply a unitary transformation such that the exact transformed Hamiltonian has one of the three levels decoupled for all values of the detunings. When one takes into account damping, the evolution of the system is governed by a master equation usually obtained via adiabatic approximation under the assumption of far-detuned lasers. To go around the drawbacks of this technique, we use the same unitary transformation to get an effective master equation.
Periodic layered media can reflect strongly for all incident angles and polarizations in a given frequency range. Quarter-wave stacks at normal incidence are commonplace in the design of such omnidirectional reflectors. We discuss alternative design criteria to optimize these systems.
We reelaborate on the basic properties of lossless multilayers by using bilinear transformations. We study some interesting properties of the multilayer transfer function in the unit disk, showing that hyperbolic geometry turns out to be an essential tool for understanding multilayer action. We use a simple trace criterion to classify multilayers into three classes that represent rotations, translations, or parallel displacements. Moreover, we show that these three actions can be decomposed as a product of two reflections in hyperbolic lines. Therefore, we conclude that hyperbolic reflections can be considered as the basic pieces for a deeper understanding of multilayer optics.
It has recently been shown that periodic layered media can reflect strongly for all incident angles and polarizations in a given frequency range. The standard treatment gets these band gaps from an eigenvalue equation for the Bloch factor in an infinite periodic structure. We argue that such a procedure may become meaningless when dealing with structures with not very many periods. We propose an alternative approach based on a factorization of the multilayer transfer matrix in terms of three fundamental matrices of simple interpretation. We show that the trace of the transfer matrix sorts the periodic structures into three types with properties closely related to one (and only one) of the three fundamental matrices. We present the reflectance associated to each one of these types, which can be considered as universal features of the reflection in these media.
We introduce phase operators associated with the algebra su(3), which is the appropriate tool to describe three-level systems. The rather unusual properties of this phase are caused by the small dimension of the system and are explored in detail. When a three-level atom interacts with a quantum field in a cavity, a polynomial deformation of this algebra emerges in a natural way. We also introduce a polar decomposition of the atom-field relative amplitudes that leads to a Hermitian relative-phase operator, whose eigenstates correctly describe the corresponding phase properties. We claim that this is the natural variable to deal with quantum interference effects in atom-field interactions. We find the probability distribution for this variable and study its time evolution in some special cases.
We discuss a general and systematic method for obtaining effective Hamiltonians that describe different nonlinear optical processes. The method exploits the existence of a nonlinear deformation of the usual su(2) algebra that arises as the dynamical symmetry of the original model. When some physical parameter, dictated by the process under consideration, becomes small, we immediately get a diagonal effective Hamiltonian that correctly represents the dynamics for arbitrary states and long times. We extend the technique to su(3) and su(N), finding the corresponding effective Hamiltonians when some resonance conditions are fulfilled.
We reelaborate on a general method for obtaining effective Hamiltonians that describe different nonlinear optical processes. The method exploits the existence of a nonlinear deformation of the su(2) algebra that arises as the dynamical symmetry of the original model. When some physical parameter (usually related to the dispersive limit) becomes small, we immediately get a diagonal effective Hamiltonian that represents correctly the dynamics for arbitrary states and long times. We apply the same technique to obtain how the noise terms in the original model transform under this scheme, providing a systematic way of including damping effects in processes described in terms of effective Hamiltonians.