arXiv subjects

P. Domokos

Publications and source records attributed to P. Domokos.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Parametric amplification of the mechanical vibrations of a suspended nanowire by magnetic coupling to a Bose-Einstein condensate

We consider the possibility of parametric amplification of a mechanical vibration mode of a nanowire due to its interaction with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of ultracold atoms. The magneto-mechanical coupling is mediated by the vibrationally modulated magnetic field around the current-carrying nanowire, which can induce atomic transitions between different hyperfine sublevels. We theoretically analyze the limitations arising from the fact that the spin inverted atomic medium which feeds the mechanical oscillation has a finite bandwidth in the range of the chemical potential of the condensate.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Damping of quasiparticles in a Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to an optical cavity

We present a general theory for calculating the damping rate of elementary density wave excitations in a Bose-Einstein condensate strongly coupled to a single radiation field mode of an optical cavity. Thereby we give a detailed derivation of the huge resonant enhancement in the Beliaev damping of a density wave mode, predicted recently by Kónya et al., Phys.~Rev.~A 89, 051601(R) (2014). The given density-wave mode constitutes the polariton-like soft mode of the self-organization phase transition. The resonant enhancement takes place, both in the normal and ordered phases, outside the critical region. We show that the large damping rate is accompanied by a significant frequency shift of this polariton mode. Going beyond the Born-Markov approximation and determining the poles of the retarded Green's function of the polariton, we reveal a strong coupling between the polariton and a collective mode in the phonon bath formed by the other density wave modes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Photonic tuning of quasi-particle decay in a superfluid

We show that the damping rate of elementary excitations of hybrid systems close to a phase transition can undergo a remarkable resonance like enhancement before mode softening takes place. In particular, we consider the friction of a collective density wave in a homogeneous superfluid of weakly interacting bosonic atoms coupled to the electromagnetic field of a single mode optical resonator. Here the Beliaev damping can thus be controlled by an external laser drive and be enhanced by several orders of magnitude.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Cavity optomechanics with a trapped, interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

The dispersive interaction of a Bose-Einstein condensate with a single mode of a high-finesse optical cavity realizes the radiation pressure coupling Hamiltonian. In this system the role of the mechanical oscillator is played by a single condensate excitation mode that is selected by the cavity mode function. We study the effect of atomic s-wave collisions and show that it merely renormalizes parameters of the usual optomechanical interaction. Moreover, we show that even in the case of strong harmonic confinement---which invalidates the use of Bloch states---a single excitation mode of the Bose-Einstein condensate couples significantly to the light field, that is the simplified picture of a single "mechanical" oscillator mode remains valid.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Finite-size scaling in the quantum phase transition of the open-system Dicke-model

Laser-driven Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold atoms loaded into a lossy high-finesse optical resonator exhibits critical behavior and, in the thermodynamic limit, a phase transition between stationary states of different symmetries. The system realizes an open-system variant of the celebrated Dicke-model. We study the transition for a finite number of atoms by means of a Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov method adapted to a damped-driven open system. The finite-size scaling exponents are determined and a clear distinction between the non-equilibrium and the equilibrium quantum criticality is found.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

On the critical exponent of a quantum noise driven phase transition: the open system Dicke-model

The quantum phase transition of the Dicke-model has been observed recently in a system formed by motional excitations of a laser-driven Bose--Einstein condensate coupled to an optical cavity [1]. The cavity-based system is intrinsically open: photons can leak out of the cavity where they are detected. Even at zero temperature, the continuous weak measurement of the photon number leads to an irreversible dynamics towards a steady-state which exhibits a dynamical quantum phase transition. However, whereas the critical point and the mean field is only slightly modified with respect to the phase transition in the ground state, the entanglement and the critical exponents of the singular quantum correlations are significantly different in the two cases.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Multimode mean-field model for the quantum phase transition of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical resonator

We develop a mean-field model describing the Hamiltonian interaction of ultracold atoms and the optical field in a cavity. The Bose-Einstein condensate is properly defined by means of a grand-canonical approach. The model is efficient because only the relevant excitation modes are taken into account. However, the model goes beyond the two-mode subspace necessary to describe the self-organization quantum phase transition observed recently. We calculate all the second-order correlations of the coupled atom field and radiation field hybrid bosonic system, including the entanglement between the two types of fields.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Quantum noise of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical cavity, correlations and entanglement

A Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold atoms inside the field of a laser-driven optical cavity exhibits dispersive optical bistability. We describe this system by using mean-field approximation and by analyzing the correlation functions of the linearized quantum fluctuations around the mean-field solution. The entanglement and the statistics of the atom-field quadratures are given in the stationary state. It is shown that the mean-field solution, i.e. the Bose-Einstein condensate is robust against entanglement generation for most part of the phase diagram.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

The Dicke model phase transition in the quantum motion of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical cavity

We show that the motion of a laser-driven Bose-Einstein condensate in a high-finesse optical cavity realizes the spin-boson Dicke-model. The quantum phase transition of the Dicke-model from the normal to the superradiant phase corresponds to the self-organization of atoms from the homogeneous into a periodically patterned distribution above a critical driving strength. The fragility of the ground state due to photon measurement induced back action is calculated.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Excess noise depletion of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical cavity

Quantum fluctuations of a cavity field coupled into the motion of ultracold bosons can be strongly amplified by a mechanism analogous to the Petermann excess noise factor in lasers with unstable cavities. For a Bose-Einstein condensate in a stable optical resonator, the excess noise effect amounts to a significant depletion on long timescales.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Self-organization of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical cavity

The spatial self-organization of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a high-finesse linear optical cavity is discussed. The condensate atoms are laser-driven from the side and scatter photons into the cavity. Above a critical pump intensity the homogeneous condensate evolves into a stable pattern bound by the cavity field. The transition point is determined analytically from a mean-field theory. We calculate the lowest lying Bogoliubov excitations of the coupled BEC-cavity system and the quantum depletion due to the atom-field coupling.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Geometric resonance cooling of polarizable particles in an optical waveguide

In the radiation field of an optical waveguide, the Rayleigh scattering of photons is shown to result in a strongly velocity-dependent force on atoms. The pump field, which is injected in the fundamental branch of the waveguide, is favorably scattered by a moving atom into one of the transversely excited branches of propagating modes. All fields involved are far detuned from any resonances of the atom. For a simple polarizable particle, a linear friction force coefficient comparable to that of cavity cooling can be achieved.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Comment on ``Coupled dynamics of atoms and radiation--pressure--driven interferometers''

In two recent articles, Meiser and Meystre describe the coupled dynamics of a dense gas of atoms and an optical cavity pumped by a laser field. They make two important simplifying assumptions: (i) the gas of atoms forms a regular lattice and can be replaced by a fictitious mirror, and (ii) the atoms strive to minimize the dipole potential. We show that the two assumptions are inconsistent: the configuration of atoms minimizing the dipole potential is not a perfect lattice. Assumption (ii) is erroneous, as in the strong coupling regime the dipole force does not arise from the dipole potential. The real steady state, where the dipole forces vanish, is indeed a regular lattice. Furthermore, the bistability predicted by Meiser and Meystre does not occur in this system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Dipole-dipole instability of atom clouds in a far-detuned optical dipole trap

The effect of the dipole-dipole interaction on the far-off-resonance optical dipole trapping scheme is calculated by a mean-field approach. The trapping laser field polarizes the atoms and the accompanying dipole-dipole energy shift deepens the attractive potential minimum in a pancake-shaped cloud. At high density the thermal motion cannot stabilize the gas against self-contraction and an instability occurs. We calculate the boundary of the stable and unstable equilibrium regions on a two-dimensional phase diagram of the atom number and the ratio of the trap depth to the temperature. We discuss the limitations imposed by the dipole-dipole instability on the parameters needed to reach Bose-Einstein condensation in an optical dipole trap.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2007

Collective excitations and instability of an optical lattice due to unbalanced pumping

We solve self-consistently the coupled equations of motion for trapped particles and the field of a one-dimensional optical lattice. Optomechanical coupling creates long-range interaction between the particles, whose nature depends crucially on the relative power of the pump beams. For asymmetric pumping, traveling density wave-like collective oscillations arise in the lattice, even in the overdamped limit. Increasing the lattice size or pump asymmetry these waves can destabilize the lattice.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2005

Self-organization of atoms in a cavity field: threshold, bistability and scaling laws

We present a detailed study of the spatial self-organization of laser-driven atoms in an optical cavity, an effect predicted on the basis of numerical simulations [P. Domokos and H. Ritsch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 253003 (2002)] and observed experimentally [A. T. Black et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 203001 (2003)]. Above a threshold in the driving laser intensity, from a uniform distribution the atoms evolve into one of two stable patterns that produce superradiant scattering into the cavity. We derive analytic formulas for the threshold and critical exponent of this phase transition from a mean-field approach. Numerical simulations of the microscopic dynamics reveal that, on laboratory timescale, a hysteresis masks the mean-field behaviour. Simple physical arguments explain this phenomenon and provide analytical expressions for the observable threshold. Above a certain density of the atoms a limited number of ``defects'' appear in the organized phase, and influence the statistical properties of the system. The scaling of the cavity cooling mechanism and the phase space density with the atom number is also studied.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Optical discrimination between spatial decoherence and thermalization of a massive object

We propose an optical ring interferometer to observe environment-induced spatial decoherence of massive objects. The object is held in a harmonic trap and scatters light between degenerate modes of a ring cavity. The output signal of the interferometer permits to monitor the spatial width of the object's wave function. It shows oscillations that arise from coherences between energy eigenstates and that reveal the difference between pure spatial decoherence and that coinciding with energy transfer and heating. Our method is designed to work with a wide variety of masses, ranging from the atomic scale to nano-fabricated structures. We give a thorough discussion of its experimental feasibility.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Correlated motion of two atoms trapped in a single mode cavity field

We study the motion of two atoms trapped at distant positions in the field of a driven standing wave high-Q optical resonator. Even without any direct atom-atom interaction the atoms are coupled through their position dependent influence on the intracavity field. For sufficiently good trapping and low cavity losses the atomic motion becomes significantly correlated and the two particles oscillate in their wells preferentially with a 90 degrees relative phase shift. The onset of correlations seriously limits cavity cooling efficiency, raising the achievable temperature to the Doppler limit. The physical origin of the correlation can be traced back to a cavity mediated cross-friction, i.e. a friction force on one particle depending on the velocity of the second particle. Choosing appropriate operating conditions allows for engineering these long range correlations. In addition this cross-friction effect can provide a basis for sympathetic cooling of distant trapped clouds.

quant-ph↗