arXiv subjects

Marcelo F. Santos

Publications and source records attributed to Marcelo F. Santos.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Fully selective charging of a quantum battery by a purely quantum charger

In this paper we discuss a protocol for charging a two-level quantum battery using a bipartite charger composed of two quantum harmonic oscillators. As one of its features, it allows us to fully charge the battery and is universally optimal in the regime of a single excitation added as energy input. We also make use of a selective interaction to extend the protocol for a different class of quantum states and show that, in this case, the presence of quantum coherence can be harnessed as energetic resource to charge multiple similar batteries. Among these, we also explore symmetries of the derived effective dynamics to quickly discuss how the same protocol can be adapted to the task of \textit{active state resetting}, a task which is particularly useful in the quantum computation area.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Fully quantum perturbative description of correlated Stokes--anti-Stokes scattering

The process in which Raman scattering produces correlated Stokes and anti-Stokes radiation is known as Stokes--anti-Stokes (SaS) scattering. It has been shown recently that this process can generate entangled photon pairs, making it a promising tool for quantum optical technologies, but a proper quantum theoretical description was lacking. In this paper, a fully quantum derivation of the electric polarization in a medium with vibrational Raman response, with quantized electromagnetic fields, is developed. Using quantum perturbation theory for Heisenberg operators, we find the solution for the material electric polarization and show that a four-wave mixing-like correlated SaS scattering appears in the first order of perturbation and completely characterizes the non-resonant SaS photon pair production. We also discuss how to construct the third-order non-linear optical susceptibility for the SaS scattering from the quantum formalism, and show that it coincides with the one derived for classical fields in stimulated Raman.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Emergent broadband polarization entanglement from electronic and phononic Stokes-anti-Stokes indistinguishability

Recently [PRA 108, L051501 (2023)], it was shown that in a centrosymmetric cubic system, two photons from a broadband intense laser field can be converted into a pair of Stokes and anti-Stokes (SaS) entangled photons. While the previous work was based on symmetry arguments, here we present a fully quantum theory for the SaS scattering that properly explains, quantitatively describes, and provides a means to predict its spectral and polarization properties (for diamond). We also explore the possibilities offered by such system, designing an entanglement map based on changes in the light-matter system. In particular, we show how the broadband polarization entanglement, that emerges from the interference between electronic and phononic degrees of freedom in the SaS scattering, depends on parameters such as Stokes-anti-Stokes Raman shift, scattering geometry and laser bandwidth, opening the avenue of exploration of such phenomenon in information processing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Physical consequences of Lindbladian invariance transformations

On its own, the invariance properties of Markovian master equations have mostly played a mathematical or computational role in the evaluation of quantum open system dynamics. Because all forms of the equation lead to the same time evolution for the state of the system, the fixation of a particular form has only gained physical meaning when correlated with additional information such as in the evolution of quantum trajectories or the study of decoherence-free subspaces. Here, we show that these symmetry transformations can be exploited, on their own, to optimize practical physical tasks. In particular, we present a general formulation showing how they can be used to change the measurable values of physical quantities regarding the exchange of energy and/or information with the environment. We also analyze examples of optimization in quantum thermodynamics and, finally, discuss practical implementations in terms of quantum trajectories.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Quantum distinguishability measures: projectors vs. states maximization

The distinguishability between two quantum states can be defined in terms of their trace distance. The operational meaning of this definition involves a maximization over measurement projectors. Here we introduce an alternative definition of distinguishability which, instead of projectors, is based on maximization over normalized states (density matrices). It is shown that this procedure leads to a distance (between two states) that, in contrast to the usual approach based on a 1-norm, is based on an infinite-norm. Properties such as convexity, monotonicity, and invariance under unitary transformations are fulfilled. Equivalent operational implementations based on maximization over classical probabilities and hypothesis testing scenarios are also established. When considering the action of completely positive transformations contractivity is only granted for unital maps. This feature allows us to introduce a measure of the quantumness of non-unital maps that can be written in terms of the proposed distinguishability measure and corresponds to the maximal possible deviation from contractivity. Particular examples sustain the main results and conclusions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Cooperative isentropic charging of hybrid quantum batteries

Quantum batteries are quantum systems used to store energy to be later extracted by an external agent in the form of work to perform some task. Here we study the charging of a hybrid quantum battery via a collisional model mediated by an anti-Jaynes Cummings interaction obtained from an off-resonant Raman configuration. The battery is made of two distinct components: a stationary infinite dimensional single quantum system (e.g. an harmonic oscillator) and a stream of small dimensional ones (e.g. qutrits). The charging protocol consists of sequentially interacting the harmonic oscillator with each element of the stream, one at a time, under the action of an external energy source and the goal is to analyze how the charging of both the harmonic oscillator and the qutrits is affected by the correlation properties of the stream.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Laser powered dissipative quantum batteries in atom-cavity QED

The interaction of a three-level atom with the electromagnetic field of a quantum cavity in the presence of a laser field presents a rich behavior that we exploit to discuss two quantum batteries. In the first setup, we consider a single three-level atom interacting sequentially with many cavities, each in a thermal state. We show that under this process, the atom converges towards an equilibrium state that displays population inversion. In the second setup, a stream of atoms in a thermal state interacts sequentially with a single cavity initially in a thermal state at the same temperature as the atoms. We show that the cavity's energy increases continuously as the stream of atoms continues to cross, and the cavity does not reach an equilibrium state. However, if we consider the state after many atoms have traveled, the cavity is in an active state that stores energy. The charging process we propose is robust. We discuss its thermodynamics and evaluate the energy supplied by the laser, the energy stored in the battery, and, thus, the device's efficiency.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Microscopic origin of polarization-entangled Stokes-anti-Stokes photons in diamond

Violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality for the polarization of Stokes-anti-Stokes (SaS) photon pairs near a Raman resonance is demonstrated. The pairs are generated by shining a pulsed laser on a diamond sample, where two photons of the laser are converted into a pair of photons of different frequencies. The generated pairs are collected by standard Bell analyzers and shown to be entangled in polarization, with the degree of entanglement depending on the spectral region and on the orientation of the polarization of the incident light with respect to the crystallographic orientation of the sample. This result opens up the possibility to combine quantum optics and SaS Raman spectroscopy in order to improve materials science and quantum information.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Vacuum enhanced charging of a quantum battery

Quantum batteries are quantum systems that store energy which can then be used for quantum tasks. One relevant question about such systems concerns the differences and eventual advantages over their classical counterparts, whether in the efficiency of the energy transference, input power, total stored energy or other relevant physical quantities. Here, we show how a purely quantum effect related to the vacuum of the electromagnetic field can enhance the charging of a quantum battery. In particular, we demonstrate how an anti-Jaynes Cummings interaction derived from an off-resonant Raman configuration can be used to increase the stored energy of an effective two-level atom when compared to its classically driven counterpart, eventually achieving full charging of the battery with zero entropic cost.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Efficiency of optically pumping a quantum battery and a two-stroke heat engine

In this work, we study the efficiency of charging a quantum battery through optical pumping. The battery consists of a qutrit and it is connected to a natural thermal reservoir and an external coherent drive in the limit where its upper energy level can be adiabatically eliminated from the dynamics. In this scenario, the drive plus spontaneous emission optically pumps the intermediate energy level of the qutrit and the battery can be understood as being charged by an effective higher temperature reservoir that takes it out of equilibrium with the natural reservoir and stores useful energy in it. We also analyse the efficiency of using this battery and charging scheme as the work fluid of a two-stroke thermal machine. The thermal machine includes a fourth level through which work is extracted from the battery via a unitary transformation, therefore setting the limit of maximum efficiency of the machine.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Maximally effcient quantum thermal machines fuelled by nonequilibrium steady states

The concept of thermal machines has evolved from the canonical steam engine to the recently proposed nanoscopic quantum systems as working fluids. The latter obey quantum open system dynamics and frequently operate in non-equilibrium conditions. However, the role of this dynamics in the overall performance of quantum heat engines remains an open problem. Here, we analyse and optimize the efficiency and power output of two-stage quantum heat engines fuelled by non-equilibrium steady states. In a charging first stage, the quantum working fluid consisting of a qutrit or two coupled qubits is connected to two reservoirs at different temperatures, which establish a heat current that stores ergotropy in the system; the second stage comprises a coherent driving force that extracts work from the machine in finite a amount of time; finally, the external drive is switched off and the machine enters a new cycle.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Charging a quantum battery via non equilibrium heat current

When a quantum system is subject to a thermal gradient it may sustain a steady non-equilibrium heat current, by entering into a so-called non equilibrium steady state (NESS). Here we show that NESS constitute a thermodynamic resource that can be exploited to fuel a quantum heat engine. This adds to the list of recently reported sources available at the nano-scale, such as coherence, entanglement and quantum measurements. We elucidate this concept by showing analytic and numerical studies of a two-qubits quantum battery that is alternatively charged by a thermal gradient and discharged by application of a properly chosen unitary gate. The presence of a NESS for the charging step guarantees steady operation with positive power output. Decreasing the duration of the charging step results in a time periodic steady state accompanied by increased efficiency and output power. The device is amenable to implementation with different nanotechnology platforms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Effective Hamiltonian for Stokes--anti-Stokes pair generation with pump and probe polarized modes

In the correlated Stokes--anti-Stokes scattering (SAS) an incident photon interacts with a Raman-active material, creating a Stokes photon and exciting a quantum vibrational mode in the medium, which is posteriorly annihilated on contact with a second incident photon, producing in turn an anti-Stokes photon. This can be accomplished by real and virtual processes. In real process the quantum mode shared between the Stokes and anti-Stokes events is a real particle, whereas in virtual processes the pair formation is mediated by the exchange of virtual particles. Here, we introduce a Hamiltonian to describe the pair production in SAS scattering, for both types of process, when stimulated by two orthogonally polarized laser pulses in a pump-and-probe configuration. We also model the effect of the natural decay of the vibration created in the Stokes event and compute the probability of producing SAS pairs. Additionally, we follow the dynamics of the vibration by considering the Stokes and anti-Stokes fields as external reservoirs, obtaining thus a master equation for the reduced density matrix for the vibrational population. Finally, we compare our theoretical results with recently published experimental data.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Detection of quantum non-Markovianity close to the Born-Markov approximation

We calculate in an exact way the conditional past-future correlation for the decay dynamics of a two-level system in a bosonic bath. Different measurement processes are considered. In contrast to quantum memory measures based solely on system propagator properties, here memory effects are related to a convolution structure involving two system propagators and the environment correlation. This structure allows to detect memory effects even close to the validity of the Born-Markov approximation. An alternative operational-based definition of environment-to-system backflow of information follows from this result. We provide experimental support to our results by implementing the dynamics and measurements in a photonic experiment.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Lifetime and Polarization for Real and Virtual Correlated Stokes-anti-Stokes Raman Scattering in Diamond

The production of correlated Stokes (S) and anti-Stokes (aS) photons (SaS process) mediated by real or virtual phonon exchange has been reported in many transparent materials. In this work, we investigate the polarization and time correlations of SaS photon pairs produced in a diamond sample. We demonstrate that both S and aS photons have mainly the same polarization of the excitation laser. We also perform a pump-and-probe experiment to measure the decay rate of the SaS pair production, evidencing the fundamental diference between the real and virtual (phonon exchange) processes. In real processes, the rate of SaS pair production is governed by the phonon lifetime of $(2.8 \pm 0.3)$ ps, while virtual processes only take place within the time width of the pump laser pulses of approximately 0.2 ps. We explain the diference between real and virtual SaS processes by a phenomenological model, based on probabilities of phonon creation and decay.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Stokes-anti-Stokes correlated photon properties akin to photonic Cooper pairs

Photons interact with each other in condensed matter through the same mechanism that forms Cooper pairs in superconductors -- the exchange of virtual phonons [PRL 119, 193603 (2017)]. It is however unclear which consequences of this interaction will be observable and potentially lead to further analogy with superconductivity. We investigate the energy, momentum and production rate of correlate Stokes-anti-Stokes (SaS) photons in diamond and other transparent media, experiencing properties akin to those of electronic Cooper pairs. The rate of correlated SaS production depends on the energy shifts of the pair, which in the BCS theory determines whether there should be an attractive or repulsive interaction. With this view, we only observe correlated SaS in the case of attractive interactions. While traditional photon-phonon collisions scatter light in all directions, the correlated SaS photons follow the same path as the noninteracting laser. The observed correlated SaS photon pairs are rare, but our model indicates paths to achieve higher interaction energies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Continuous Monitoring of Energy in Quantum Open Systems

We propose a method to continually monitor the energy of a quantum system. We show that by having some previous knowledge of the system's dynamics, but not all of it, one can use the measured energy to determine many other quantities, such as the work performed on the system, the heat exchanged between the system and a thermal reservoir, the time dependence of the Hamiltonian of the system as well as the total entropy produced by its dynamics. We have also analyzed how this method is dependent on the quality factor of the measurements employed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Photonic Counterparts of Cooper Pairs

The microscopic theory of superconductivity raised the disruptive idea that electrons couple through the elusive exchange of virtual phonons, overcoming the strong Coulomb repulsion to form Cooper pairs. Light is also known to interact with atomic vibrations, as for example in the Raman effect. We show that photon pairs exchange virtual vibrations in transparent media, leading to an effective photon-photon interaction identical to that for electrons in BCS theory of supercondutivity, in spite of the fact that photons are bosons. In this scenario, photons may exchange energy without matching a quantum of vibration of the medium. As a result, pair correlations for photons scattered away from the Raman resonances are expected to be enhanced. Experimental demonstration of this effect is provided here by time correlated Raman measurements in different media. The experimental data confirm our theoretical interpretation of a photonic Cooper pairing, without the need for any fitting parameters.

quant-ph↗