arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M. Saffman.
We demonstrate experimentally that a single Rb atom excited to the $79d_{5/2}$ level blocks the subsequent excitation of a second atom located more than $10 μ\rm m$ away. The observed probability of double excitation of $\sim 30%$ is consistent with a theoretical model based on calculations of the long range dipole-dipole interaction between atoms.
We discuss a method for scaling a neutral atom Rydberg gate quantum processor to a large number of qubits. Limits are derived showing that the number of qubits that can be directly connected by entangling gates with errors at the $10^{-3}$ level using long range Rydberg interactions between sites in an optical lattice, without mechanical motion or swap chains, is about 500 in two dimensions and 7500 in three dimensions. A scaling factor of 60 at a smaller number of sites can be obtained using collective register encoding in the hyperfine ground states of the rare earth atom Holmium. We present a detailed analysis of operation of the 60 qubit register in Holmium. Combining a lattice of multi-qubit ensembles with collective encoding results in a feasible design for a 1000 qubit fully connected quantum processor.
We report on non-destructive observation of Rabi oscillations on the Cs clock transition. The internal atomic state evolution of a dipole-trapped ensemble of cold atoms is inferred from the phase shift of a probe laser beam as measured using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We describe a single color as well as a two-color probing scheme. Using the latter, measurements of the collective pseudo-spin projection of atoms in a superposition of the clock states are performed and the observed spin fluctuations are shown to be close to the standard quantum limit.
We analyze the effects of Zeeman degeneracies on the long-range interactions between like Rydberg atoms, with particular emphasis on applications to quantum information processing using van der Waals blockade. We present a general analysis of how degeneracies affect the primary error sources in blockade experiments, emphasizing that blockade errors are sensitive primarily to the weakest possible atom-atom interactions between the degenerate states, not the mean interaction strength. We present explicit calculations of the van der Waals potentials in the limit where the fine-structure interaction is large compared to the atom-atom interactions. The results are presented for all potential angular momentum channels invoving s, p, and d states. For most channels there are one or more combinations of Zeeman levels that have extremely small dipole-dipole interactions and are therefore poor candidates for effective blockade experiments. Channels with promising properties are identified and discussed. We also present numerical calculations of Rb and Cs dipole matrix elements and relevant energy levels using quantum defect theory, allowing for convenient quantitative estimates of the van der Waals interactions to be made for principal quantum numbers up to 100. Finally, we combine the blockade and van der Waals results to quantitatively analyze the angular distribution of the blockade shift and its consequence for angular momentum channels and geometries of particular interest for blockade experiments with Rb.
We analyze a method of compressing a cloud of cold atoms by dynamic control of a far off resonance optical lattice. We show that by reducing the lattice spacing either continuously or in discrete steps while cooling the atoms with optical molasses large compression factors can be achieved. Particle motion in the time dependent lattice is studied numerically using a three dimensional semiclassical model. Two experimentally realistic models are analyzed. In the first we continuously vary the lattice beam angles to compress atoms initially in a Gaussian distributed cloud with standard deviation of $250 μ\rm m$ into a single site of a two-dimensional lattice of area $A\sim 35\times 35 λ^2$, with $λ$ the wavelength of the lattice beams. This results in an optical depth for an on-resonant probe beam $>80$ which is an increase by a factor of about 1800 compared to the uncompressed cloud. In the second approach we use a discrete set of lattice beam angles to decrease the spatial scale of the cloud by a factor of 500, and localize a few atoms to a single lattice site with an area $A\stackrel{<}{\sim} λ^2.$
We demonstrate Rabi flopping of small numbers of $\rm{^{87}Rb}$ atoms between ground and Rydberg states with $n\le 43$. Coherent population oscillations are observed for single atom flopping, while the presence of two or more atoms decoheres the oscillations. We show that these observations are consistent with van der Waals interactions of Rydberg atoms.
We propose a new physical approach for encoding and processing of quantum information in ensembles of multi-level quantum systems, where the different bits are not carried by individual particles but associated with the collective population of different internal levels. One- and two-bit gates are implemented by collective internal state transitions taking place in the presence of an excitation blockade mechanism which restricts the population of each internal state to the values zero and unity. 10-20 bit quantum computers can be built via this scheme in single trapped clouds of ground state atoms subject to the Rydberg excitation blockade mechanism, and the linear dependence between register size and the number of internal quantum states in atoms offers realistic means to reach larger registers.
We show that ballistic transport of optically excited atoms in an atomic vapor provides a nonlocal nonlinearity which stabilizes the propagation of vortex beams and higher order modes in the presence of a self-focusing nonlinearity. Numerical experiments demonstrate stable propagation of lowest and higher order vortices over a hundred diffraction lengths, before dissipation leads to decay of these structures.
In this paper, we propose a way to achieve protected universal computation in a neutral atom quantum computer subject to collective dephasing. Our proposal relies on the existence of a Decoherence Free Subspace (DFS), resulting from symmetry properties of the errors. After briefly describing the physical system and the error model considered, we show how to encode information into the DFS and build a complete set of safe universal gates. Finally, we provide numerical simulations for the fidelity of the different gates in the presence of time-dependent phase errors and discuss their performance and practical feasibility.
We demonstrate production of quantum correlated and entangled beams by second harmonic generation in a nonlinear resonator with two output ports. The output beams at wavelength 428.5 nm exhibit 0.9 dB of nonclassical intensity correlations and 0.3 dB of entanglement.
We demonstrate Rabi flopping at MHz rates between ground hyperfine states of neutral $^{87}$Rb atoms that are trapped in two micron sized optical traps. Using tightly focused laser beams we demonstrate high fidelity, site specific Rabi rotations with crosstalk on neighboring sites separated by $8 μ\rm m$ at the level of $10^{-3}$. Ramsey spectroscopy is used to measure a dephasing time of $870 μ\rm s$ which is $\approx$ 5000 times longer than the time for a $π/2$ pulse.
We discuss the use of Rydberg blockade techniques for entanglement of 1 atom qubits with collective $N$ atom qubits. We show how the entanglement can be used to achieve fast readout and transmission of the state of single atom qubits without the use of optical cavities.
We analyze a method for serial writing of arbitrary two-dimensional patterns using optical focusing of a collimated atomic beam. A spatial light modulator is used in a side illumination geometry to create a localized optical spot with secondary maxima that are well separated from the central peak. Numerical simulation of a lithography experiment using a magneto-optical trap as a source of cold Cs atoms, collimation and cooling in a magnetic guide, and optical focusing predicts full width at half maximum pixel sizes of 110 x 110 nm and writing times of about $20 \rm ms$ per pixel.
We present a detailed analysis and design of a neutral atom quantum logic device based on atoms in optical traps interacting via dipole-dipole coupling of Rydberg states. The dominant physical mechanisms leading to decoherence and loss of fidelity are enumerated. Our results support the feasibility of performing single and two-qubit gates at MHz rates with decoherence probability and fidelity errors at the level of $10^{-3}$ for each operation. Current limitations and possible approaches to further improvement of the device are discussed.
We present an experimental study of Z-scan measurements of the nonlinear response of cold Cs atoms in a magneto-optical trap. Numerical simulations of the Z-scan signal accounting for the nonuniform atomic density agree with experimental results at large probe beam detunings. At small probe detunings a spatially varying radiation force modifies the Z-scan signal. We also show that the measured scan is sensitive to the atomic polarization distribution.
We study theoretically and experimentally the modulational instability of broad optical beams in photorefractive nonlinear media. We demonstrate the impact of the anisotropy of the nonlinearity on the growth rate of periodic perturbations. Our findings are confirmed by experimental measurements in a strontium barium niobate photorefractive crystal.
We study propagation of a pair of oppositely charged and mutually incoherent vortices in anisotropic nonlinear optical media. Mutual interactions retard the delocalization of the vortex core observed for isolated vortices.
A method of synthesizing localized optical fields with zeroes on a periodic lattice is analyzed. The applicability to addressing atoms trapped in optical lattices with low crosstalk is discussed.