arXiv subjects

Martin Kiffner

Publications and source records attributed to Martin Kiffner.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Mott polaritons in cavity-coupled quantum materials

We show that strong electron-electron interactions in cavity-coupled quantum materials can enable collectively enhanced light-matter interactions with ultrastrong effective coupling strengths. As a paradigmatic example we consider a Fermi-Hubbard model coupled to a single-mode cavity and find that resonant electron-cavity interactions result in the formation of a quasi-continuum of polariton branches. The vacuum Rabi splitting of the two outermost branches is collectively enhanced and scales with $g_{\text{eff}}\propto\sqrt{2L}$, where $L$ is the number of electronic sites, and the maximal achievable value for $g_{\text{eff}}$ is determined by the volume of the unit cell of the crystal. We find that $g_{\text{eff}}$ for existing quantum materials can by far exceed the width of the first excited Hubbard band. This effect can be experimentally observed via measurements of the optical conductivity and does not require ultra-strong coupling on the single-electron level. Quantum correlations in the electronic ground state as well as the microscopic nature of the light-matter interaction enhance the collective light-matter interaction compared to an ensemble of independent two-level atoms interacting with a cavity mode.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Bosonic Fractional Quantum Hall States on a Finite Cylinder

We investigate the ground state properties of a bosonic Harper-Hofstadter model with local interactions on a finite cylindrical lattice with filling fraction $ν=1/2$. We find that our system supports topologically ordered states by calculating the topological entanglement entropy, and its value is in good agreement with the theoretical value for the $ν=1/2$ Laughlin state. By exploring the behaviour of the density profiles, edge currents and single-particle correlation functions, we find that the ground state on the cylinder shows all signatures of a fractional quantum Hall state even for large values of the magnetic flux density. Furthermore, we determine the dependence of the correlation functions and edge currents on the interaction strength. We find that depending on the magnetic flux density, the transition towards Laughlin-like behaviour can be either smooth or happens abruptly for some critical interaction strength.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Manipulating quantum materials with quantum light

We show that the macroscopic magnetic and electronic properties of strongly correlated electron systems can be manipulated by coupling them to a cavity mode. As a paradigmatic example we consider the Fermi-Hubbard model and find that the electron-cavity coupling enhances the magnetic interaction between the electron spins in the ground-state manifold. At half filling this effect can be observed by a change in the magnetic susceptibility. At less than half filling, the cavity introduces a next-nearest neighbour hopping and mediates a long-range electron-electron interaction between distant sites. We study the ground state properties with Tensor Network methods and find that the cavity coupling can induce a new phase characterized by a momentum-space pairing effect for electrons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Efficient microwave-to-optical conversion using Rydberg atoms

We demonstrate microwave-to-optical conversion using six-wave mixing in $^{87}$Rb atoms where the microwave field couples to two atomic Rydberg states, and propagates collinearly with the converted optical field. We achieve a photon conversion efficiency of ~5% in the linear regime of the converter. In addition, we theoretically investigate all-resonant six-wave mixing and outline a realistic experimental scheme for reaching efficiencies greater than 60%.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2018

A polynomial Ansatz for Norm-conserving Pseudopotentials

We show that efficient norm-conserving pseudopotentials for electronic structure calculations can be obtained from a polynomial Ansatz for the potential. Our pseudopotential is a polynomial of degree ten in the radial variable and fulfills the same smoothness conditions imposed by the Troullier-Martins method [Phys. Rev. B 43, 1993 (1991)] where pseudopotentials are represented by a polynomial of degree twenty-two. We compare our method to the Troullier-Martins approach in electronic structure calculations for diamond and iron in the bcc structure and find that the two methods perform equally well in calculations of the total energy. However, first and second derivatives of the total energy with respect to atomic coordinates converge significantly faster with the plane wave cutoff if the standard Troullier-Martins potentials are replaced by the pseudopotentials introduced here.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Probing microscopic models for system-bath interactions via parametric driving

We show that strong parametric driving of a quantum harmonic oscillator coupled to a thermal bath allows one to distinguish between different microscopic models for the oscillator-bath coupling. We consider a bath with an Ohmic spectral density and a model where the system-bath interaction can be tuned continuously between position and momentum coupling via the coupling angle $α$. We derive a master equation for the reduced density operator of the oscillator in Born-Markov approximation and investigate its quasi-steady state as a function of the driving parameters, the temperature of the bath and the coupling angle $α$. We find that the time-averaged variance of position and momentum exhibits a strong dependence on these parameters. In particular, we identify parameter regimes that maximise the $α$-dependence and provide an intuitive explanation of our results.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2018

Coherent microwave-to-optical conversion via six-wave mixing in Rydberg atoms

We present an experimental demonstration of converting a microwave field to an optical field via frequency mixing in a cloud of cold $^{87}$Rb atoms, where the microwave field strongly couples to an electric dipole transition between Rydberg states. We show that the conversion allows the phase information of the microwave field to be coherently transferred to the optical field. With the current energy level scheme and experimental geometry, we achieve a photon conversion efficiency of ~0.3% at low microwave intensities and a broad conversion bandwidth of more than 4 MHz. Theoretical simulations agree well with the experimental data, and indicate that near-unit efficiency is possible in future experiments.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2017

Terahertz field control of interlayer transport modes in cuprate superconductors

We theoretically show that terahertz pulses with controlled amplitude and frequency can be used to switch between stable transport modes in layered superconductors, modelled as stacks of Josephson junctions. We find pulse shapes that deterministically switch the transport mode between superconducting, resistive and solitonic states. We develop a simple model that explains the switching mechanism as a destablization of the centre of mass excitation of the Josephson phase, made possible by the highly non-linear nature of the light-matter coupling.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Topological spin models in Rydberg lattices

We show that resonant dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg atoms in a triangular lattice can give rise to artificial magnetic fields for spin excitations. We consider the coherent dipole-dipole coupling between $np$ and $ns$ Rydberg states and derive an effective spin-1/2 Hamiltonian for the $np$ excitations. By breaking time-reversal symmetry via external fields we engineer complex hopping amplitudes for transitions between two rectangular sub-lattices. The phase of these hopping amplitudes depends on the direction of the hop. This gives rise to a staggered, artificial magnetic field which induces non-trivial topological effects. We calculate the single-particle band structure and investigate its Chern numbers as a function of the lattice parameters and the detuning between the two sub-lattices. We identify extended parameter regimes where the Chern number of the lowest band is $C=1$ or $C=2$.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2016

Quantum mechanical calculation of Rydberg-Rydberg autoionization rates

We present quantum mechanical calculations of Auger decay rates for two Rubidium Rydberg atoms with weakly overlapping electron clouds. We neglect exchange effects and consider tensor products of independent atom states forming an approximate basis of the two-electron state space. We consider large sets of two-atom states with randomly chosen quantum numbers and find that the charge overlap between the two Rydberg electrons allows one to characterise the magnitude of the Auger decay rates. If the electron clouds overlap by more than one percent, the Auger decay rates increase approximately exponentially with the charge overlap. This finding is independent of the energy of the initial state.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2016

Two-way interconversion of millimeter-wave and optical fields in Rydberg gases

We show that cold Rydberg gases enable an efficient six-wave mixing process where terahertz or microwave fields are coherently converted into optical fields and vice versa. This process is made possible by the long lifetime of Rydberg states, the strong coupling of millimeter waves to Rydberg transitions and by a quantum interference effect related to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Our frequency conversion scheme applies to a broad spectrum of millimeter waves due to the abundance of transitions within the Rydberg manifold, and we discuss two possible implementations based on focussed terahertz beams and millimeter wave fields confined by a waveguide, respectively. We analyse a realistic example for the interconversion of terahertz and optical fields in rubidium atoms and find that the conversion efficiency can in principle exceed 90\%.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Lensing effect of electromagnetically induced transparency involving a Rydberg state

We study the lensing effect experienced by a weak probe field under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) involving a Rydberg state. A Gaussian coupling beam tightly focused on a laser-cooled atomic cloud produces an inhomogeneity in the coupling Rabi frequency along the transverse direction and makes the EIT area acting like a gradient-index medium. We image the probe beam at the position where it exits the atomic cloud, and observe that a red-detuned probe light is strongly focused with a greatly enhanced intensity whereas a blue-detuned one is de-focused with a reduced intensity. Our experimental results agree very well with the numerical solutions of Maxwell-Bloch equations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Pulse-splitting in light propagation through $N$-type atomic media due to an interplay of Kerr-nonlinearity and group velocity dispersion

We investigate the spatio-temporal evolution of a Gaussian probe pulse propagating through a four-level $N$-type atomic medium. At two-photon resonance of probe-and control fields, weaker probe pulses may propagate through the medium with low absorption and pulse shape distortion. In contrast, we find that increasing the probe pulse intensity leads to a splitting of the initially Gaussian pulse into a sequence of subpulses in the time domain. The number of subpulses arising throughout the propagation can be controlled via a suitable choice of the probe and control field parameters. Employing a simple theoretical model for the nonlinear pulse propagation, we conclude that the splitting occurs due to an interplay of Kerr nonlinearity and group velocity dispersion.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Few-Body Bound States of Dipole-Dipole Interacting Rydberg Atoms

We show that the resonant dipole-dipole interaction can give rise to bound states between two and three Rydberg atoms with non-overlapping electron clouds. The dimer and trimer states arise from avoided level crossings between states converging to different fine structure manifolds in the limit of separated atoms. We analyze the angular dependence of the potential wells, characterize the quantum dynamics in these potentials and discuss methods for their production and detection. Typical distances between the atoms are of the order of several micrometers which can be resolved in state-of-the-art experiments. The potential depths and typical oscillation frequencies are about one order of magnitude larger as compared to the dimer and trimer states investigated in [PRA $\textbf{86}$ 031401(R) (2012)] and [PRL $\textbf{111}$ 233003 (2014)], respectively. We find that the dimer and trimer molecules can be aligned with respect to the axis of a weak electric field.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2014

The walk-sum method for simulating quantum many-body systems

We present the method of walk-sum to study the real-time dynamics of interacting quantum many-body systems. The walk-sum method generates explicit expressions for any desired pieces of an evolution operator U independently of any others. The computational cost for evaluating any such piece at a fixed order grows polynomially with the number of particles. Walk-sum is valid for systems presenting long-range interactions and in any geometry. We illustrate the method by means of two physical systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Three-body bound states in dipole-dipole interacting Rydberg atoms

We show that the dipole-dipole interaction between three identical Rydberg atoms can give rise to bound trimer states. The microscopic origin of these states is fundamentally different from Efimov physics. Two stable trimer configurations exist where the atoms form the vertices of an equilateral triangle in a plane perpendicular to a static electric field. The triangle edge length typically exceeds $R\approx 2\,μ\text{m}$, and each configuration is two-fold degenerate due to Kramers' degeneracy. The depth of the potential wells and the triangle edge length can be controlled by external parameters. We establish the Borromean nature of the trimer states, analyze the quantum dynamics in the potential wells and describe methods for their production and detection.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2013

Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields in dipole-dipole interacting Rydberg atoms

We show that the dipole-dipole interaction between two Rydberg atoms can lead to substantial Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields acting on the relative motion of the two atoms. We demonstrate how the gauge fields can be evaluated by numerical techniques. In the case of adiabatic motion in a single internal state, we show that the gauge fields give rise to a magnetic field that results in a Zeeman splitting of the rotational states. In particular, the ground state of a molecular potential well is given by the first excited rotational state. We find that our system realises a synthetic spin-orbit coupling where the relative atomic motion couples to two internal two-atom states. The associated gauge fields are non-Abelian.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Magnetic monopoles and synthetic spin-orbit coupling in Rydberg macrodimers

We show that sizeable Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields arise in the relative motion of two dipole-dipole interacting Rydberg atoms. Our system exhibits two magnetic monopoles for adiabatic motion in one internal two-atom state. These monopoles occur at a characteristic distance between the atoms that is of the order of one micron. The deflection of the relative motion due to the Lorentz force gives rise to a clear signature of the effective magnetic field. In addition, we consider non-adiabatic transitions between two near-degenerate internal states and show that the associated gauge fields are non-Abelian. We present quantum mechanical calculations of this synthetic spin-orbit coupling and show that it realizes a velocity-dependent beamsplitter.

quant-ph↗