arXiv subjects

P. Domokos

Publications and source records attributed to P. Domokos.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Wigner Time: a data-oriented approach to experimental timeline creation for quantum science and technology

Precisely timed, multi-device control in atomic, molecular and optical physics is provided by specialized real-time systems, which impose their own terms on the description of the experiment: a program over a global clock, in which every stage boundary is an absolute time computed from everything preceding it. Such descriptions are tightly coupled -- changing one stage affects all later ones -- and are correspondingly hard to reuse, inspect, or move elsewhere. We introduce Wigner Time, a Python package in which the experimental procedure is instead represented as data: a table of timed updates, assembled by composing functions and referred to named points in the experiment rather than to absolute instants. Hardware enters only at a final conversion step, leaving the description readable and back-end agnostic. Wigner Time has run two cold-atom setups for more than two years, where replacing a hand-written real-time program improved the achievable temporal resolution five-fold; the design applies to any domain requiring precise multi-device timing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Collective inhibition of light scattering from atoms into an optical cavity at a magic frequency

We report on the observation of a new magic frequency within the hyperfine structure of the D2 line of ${}^{87}$Rb atoms at which the scattering of light into a high-finesse cavity is suppressed by an interplay between quantum interference and the strong collective coupling of atoms to the cavity. Scattering from a cloud of laser-driven cold atoms into the cavity was measured in a polarization sensitive way. We have found that both the Rayleigh and Raman scattering processes into the near-resonant cavity modes are extinguished at 185 MHz below the F=2$\leftrightarrow$F'=3 transition frequency. This coincidence together with the shape of the observed spectral dip imply that the effect relies on a quantum interference in the polariton excitations of the strongly coupled combined atom-photon system. We have also demonstrated the existence of a magic frequency around -506 MHz, where only the Raman scattering is suppressed due to a quantum interference effect at the single-atom level.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Loading atoms from a large magnetic trap to a small intra-cavity dipole trap

We show that an optimized loading of a cold ensemble of rubidium-87 atoms from a magnetic trap into an optical dipole trap sustained by a single, far-red-detuned mode of a high-Q optical cavity can be efficient despite the large volume mismatch of the traps. The magnetically trapped atoms are magnetically transported to the vicinity of the cavity mode and released from the magnetic trap in a controlled way meanwhile undergoing an evaporation period. Large number of atoms get trapped in the dipole potential for several hundreds of milliseconds. We monitor the number of atoms in the mode volume by a second tone of the cavity close to the atomic resonance. While this probe tone can pump atoms to another ground state uncoupled to the probe, we demonstrate state-independent trapping by applying a repumper laser.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Quantum bistability in the hyperfine ground state of atoms

First order phase transitions are ubiquitous in nature, however, this notion is ambiguous and highly debated in the case of quantum systems out of thermal equilibrium. We construct a paradigmatic example which allows for elucidating the key concepts. We show that atoms in an optical cavity can manifest a first-order dissipative phase transition where the stable co-existing phases are quantum states with high quantum purity. These states include hyperfine ground states of atoms and coherent states of electromagnetic field modes. The scheme benefits from the collective enhancement of the coupling between the atoms and the cavity field. Thereby we propose a readily feasible experimental scheme to study the dissipative phase transition phenomenology in the quantum limit, allowing for, in particular, performing a finite-size scaling to the thermodynamic limit.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Ground state bistability of cold atoms in a cavity

We experimentally demonstrate an optical bistability between two hyperfine atomic ground states, using a single mode of an optical resonator in the collective strong coupling regime. Whereas in the familiar case, the bistable region is created through atomic saturation, we report an effect between states of high quantum purity, which is essential for future information storage. The nonlinearity of the transitions arise from cavity-assisted pumping between ground states of cold, trapped atoms and the stability depends on the intensity of two driving lasers. We interpret the phenomenon in terms of the recent paradigm of first-order, driven-dissipative phase transitions, where the transmitted and driving fields are understood as the order and control parameters, respectively. The saturation-induced bistability is recovered for infinite drive in one of the controls. The order of the transition is confirmed experimentally by hysteresis in the order parameter when either of the two control parameters is swept repeatedly across the bistability region and the underlying phase diagram is predicted in line with semiclassical mean-field theory.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Time-resolved observation of a dynamical phase transition of atoms in a cavity

The transparence of a laser-driven optical resonator containing an ensemble of cold atoms can have two distinct, robust states. Atoms in their initially prepared pure state blockade the transmission by detuning the cavity mode from the laser drive. The interacting system can, however, transition into an uncoupled state via a non-linear channel opening up in a critical run-away process toward a transparent bright phase. The experiment enables a time-resolved observation of the dynamical transmission blockade breakdown phase transition as well as quantification of enhanced fluctuations in the critical region.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Optimal collection of radiation emitted by a trapped atomic ensemble

Trapped atomic ensembles are convenient systems for quantum information storage in the long-lived sublevels of the electronic ground state and its conversion to propagating optical photons via stimulated Raman processes. Here we investigate a phase-matched emission of photons from a coherently prepared atomic ensemble. We consider an ensemble of cold atoms in an elongated harmonic trap with normal density distribution, and determine the parameters of paraxial optics to match the mode geometry of the emitted radiation and optimally collect it into an optical waveguide.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Collective self-trapping of atoms in a cavity

We experimentally demonstrate optical dipole trapping of a cloud of cold atoms by means of a dynamically coupled mode of a high-finesse cavity. We show that the trap requires a collective action of the atoms, i.e. a single atom would not be trapped under the same laser drive conditions. The atoms pull the frequency of the mode closer to resonance, thereby allowing the necessary light intensity for trapping into the cavity. The back-action of the atoms on the trapping light mode is also manifested by the non-exponential collapse of the trap.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Finite-size scaling of the photon-blockade breakdown dissipative quantum phase transition

We prove that the observable telegraph signal accompanying the bistability in the photon-blockade-breakdown regime of the driven and lossy Jaynes--Cummings model is the finite-size precursor of what in the thermodynamic limit is a genuine first-order phase transition. We construct a finite-size scaling of the system parameters to a well-defined thermodynamic limit, in which the system remains the same microscopic system, but the telegraph signal becomes macroscopic both in its timescale and intensity. The existence of such a finite-size scaling completes and justifies the classification of the photon-blockade-breakdown effect as a first-order dissipative quantum phase transition.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

The gauge-invariant Lagrangian, the Power-Zienau-Woolley picture, and the choices of field momenta in nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics

We show that the Power-Zienau-Woolley picture of the electrodynamics of nonrelativistic neutral particles (atoms) can be derived from a gauge-invariant Lagrangian without making reference to any gauge whatsoever in the process. This equivalence is independent of choices of canonical field momentum or quantization strategies. In the process, we emphasize that in nonrelativistic (quantum) electrodynamics, the all-time appropriate generalized coordinate for the field is the transverse part of the vector potential, which is itself gauge invariant, and the use of which we recommend regardless of the choice of gauge, since in this way it is possible to sidestep most issues of constraints. Furthermore, we point out a freedom of choice for the conjugate momenta in the respective pictures, the conventional choices being good ones in the sense that they drastically reduce the set of system constraints.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Quantum noise in a transversely pumped cavity Bose--Hubbard model

We investigate the quantum measurement noise effects on the dynamics of an atomic Bose lattice gas inside an optical resonator. We describe the dynamics by means of a hybrid model consisting of a Bose--Hubbard Hamiltonian for the atoms and a Heisenberg--Langevin equation for the lossy cavity field mode. We assume that the atoms are prepared initially in the ground state of the lattice Hamiltonian and then start to interact with the cavity mode. We show that the cavity field fluctuations originating from the dissipative outcoupling of photons from the resonator lead to vastly different effects in the different possible ground state phases, i.e., the superfluid, the supersolid, the Mott- and the charge-density-wave phases. In the former two phases with the presence of a superfluid wavefunction, the quantum measurement noise appears as a driving term leading to excess noise depletion of the ground state. The time scale for the system to leave the ground scale is determined analytically. For the latter two incompressible phases, the quantum noise results in the fluctuation of the chemical potential. We derive an analytical expression for the corresponding broadening of the quasiparticle resonances.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Noise Spectroscopy with a Quantum Gas

We report on the spectral analysis and the local measurement of intensity correlations of microwave fields using ultra cold quantum gases. The fluctuations of the electromagnetic field induce spin flips in a magnetically trapped quantum gas and generate a multi-mode atomlaser. The output of the atomlaser is measured with high temporal resolution on the single atom level, from which the spectrum and intensity correlations of the generating microwave field are reconstructed. We give a theoretical description of the atomlaser output and its correlations in response to resonant microwave fields and verify the model with measurements on an atom chip. The measurement technique is applicable for the local analysis of classical and quantum noise of electromagnetic fields, for example on chips, in the vicinity of quantum electronic circuits.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2016

Critical exponent of quantum phase transitions driven by colored noise

We demonstrate that criticality in a driven-dissipative system is strongly influenced by the spectral properties of the reservoir. We study the open-system realization of the Dicke model, where a bosonic cavity mode couples to a large spin formed by two motional modes of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. The cavity mode is driven by a high frequency laser and it decays to a Markovian bath, while the atomic mode interacts with a colored reservoir. We reveal that the soft mode fails to describe the characteristics of the criticality. We calculate the critical exponent of the superradiant phase transition and identify an inherent relation to the low-frequency spectral density function of the colored bath. We show that a finite temperature of the colored reservoir does not modify qualitatively this dependence on the spectral density function.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Magnetic noise spectrum measurement by an atom laser in gravity

Bose-Einstein condensates of ultracold atoms can be used to sense fluctuations of the magnetic field by means of transitions into untrapped hyperfine states. It has been shown recently that counting the outcoupled atoms can yield the power spectrum of the magnetic noise. We calculate the spectral resolution function which characterizes the condensate as a noise measurement device in this scheme. We use the description of the radio-frequency outcoupling scheme of an atom laser which takes into account the gravitational acceleration. Employing both an intuitive and the exact three-dimensional and fully quantum mechanical approach we derive the position-dependent spectral resolution function for condensates of different size and shape.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Observation of the photon-blockade breakdown phase transition

Non-equilibrium phase transitions exist in damped-driven open quantum systems, when the continuous tuning of an external parameter leads to a transition between two robust steady states. In second-order transitions this change is abrupt at a critical point, whereas in first-order transitions the two phases can co-exist in a critical hysteresis domain. Here we report the observation of a first-order dissipative quantum phase transition in a driven circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) system. It takes place when the photon blockade of the driven cavity-atom system is broken by increasing the drive power. The observed experimental signature is a bimodal phase space distribution with varying weights controlled by the drive strength. Our measurements show an improved stabilization of the classical attractors up to the milli-second range when the size of the quantum system is increased from one to three artificial atoms. The formation of such robust pointer states could be used for new quantum measurement schemes or to investigate multi-photon quantum many-body phases.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Fundamental limitation of ultrastrong coupling between light and atoms

In a recent work of ours [Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 073601 (2014)], we generalized the Power-Zineau-Woolley gauge to describe the electrodynamics of atoms in an arbitrary confined geometry. Here we complement the theory by proposing a tractable form of the polarization field to represent atomic material with well-defined intra-atomic potential. The direct electrostatic dipole-dipole interaction between the atoms is canceled. This theory yields a suitable framework to determine limitations on the light-matter coupling in quantum optical models with discernible atoms. We find that the superradiant criticality is at the border of covalent molecule formation and crystallization.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Quantum galvanometer by interfacing a vibrating nanowire and cold atoms

We evaluate the coupling of a Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold, paramagnetic atoms to the magnetic field of the current in a mechanically vibrating carbon nanotube within the frame of a full quantum theory. We find that the interaction is strong enough to sense quantum features of the nanowire current noise spectrum by means of hyperfine-state-selective atom counting. Such a non-destructive measurement of the electric current via its magnetic field corresponds to the classical galvanometer scheme, extended to the quantum regime of charge transport. The calculated high sensitivity of the interaction in the nanowire-BEC hybrid systems opens up the possibility of quantum control, which may be further extended to include other relevant degrees of freedom.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

The Open-System Dicke-Model Quantum Phase Transition with a Sub-Ohmic Bath

We show that the critical exponent of a quantum phase transition in a damped-driven open system is determined by the spectral density function of the reservoir. We consider the open-system variant of the Dicke model, where the driven boson mode and also the large N-spin couple to independent reservoirs at zero temperature. The critical exponent, which is $1$ if there is no spin-bath coupling, decreases below 1 when the spin couples to a sub-Ohmic reservoir.

quant-ph↗