arXiv subjects

Parth B. Patel

Publications and source records attributed to Parth B. Patel.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Phase-continuous comparison of three all-optical time scales over 20 days

Optical frequency standards have progressed rapidly over the past two decades, leading to the anticipated redefinition of the SI second by an optical frequency. However, time scales have not yet significantly improved despite this development because they are still fully reliant on rf flywheel oscillators, mostly hydrogen masers, which impose a performance limit related to incompletely sampled noise known as the Dick effect. To best benefit from the exceptional stability and accuracy of optical frequency standards, time scales must employ optical flywheels with orders-of-magnitude better short-term (<$10^4$ s) stability than masers. Here, we introduce three optical flywheel oscillators (two cryogenic silicon cavities and one iodine optical clock) with superior short-term stability than hydrogen masers and long-term stability on par with masers. Steering each optical flywheel with a high-uptime Sr optical frequency standard generates three parallel all-optical time scales with continuous operation over >20 days. When compared with each other, these all-optical time scales achieve <$10^{-16}$ relative instability after just a few days of averaging. During typical steering gaps of ~6 hours, the accumulated time difference is ~20 ps, leading to the total time difference of <100 ps over the full measurement period. With the proliferation of long-distance optical fiber links and commercialization of optical flywheels and frequency standards, we anticipate all-optical time scales to be the future of timekeeping.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2024

Laser cooling $^{88}$Sr to microkelvin temperature with an integrated-photonics system

We report on experiments generating a magneto-optical trap (MOT) of 88-strontium ($^{88}$Sr) atoms at microkelvin temperature, using integrated-photonics devices. With metasurface optics integrated on a fused-silica substrate, we generate six-beam, circularly polarized, counter-propagating MOTs on the blue broad-line, 461 nm, and red narrow-line, 689 nm, Sr cooling transitions without bulk optics. By use of a diverging beam configuration, we create up to 10 mm diameter MOT beams at the trapping location. To frequency stabilize and linewidth narrow the cooling lasers, we use fiber-packaged, integrated nonlinear waveguides to spectrally broaden a frequency comb. The ultra-coherent supercontinuum of the waveguides covers 650 nm to 2500 nm, enabling phase locks of the cooling lasers to hertz level linewidth. Our work highlights the possibility to simplify the preparation of an ultracold 88Sr gas for an optical-lattice clock with photonic devices. By implementing a timing sequence for control of the MOT lasers and the quadrupole magnetic-field gradient, we collect atoms directly from a thermal beam into the blue MOT and continuously cool into a red MOT with dynamic detuning and intensity control. There, the red MOT temperature is as low as $2~μ$K and the overall transfer efficiency up to 16%. We characterize this sequence, including an intermediate red MOT with modulated detuning. Our experiments demonstrate an integrated photonics system capable of cooling alkaline-earth gases to microkelvin temperature with sufficient transfer efficiencies for adoption in scalable optical clocks and quantum sensors.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2024

Three-dimensional, multi-wavelength beam formation with integrated metasurface optics for Sr laser cooling

We demonstrate the formation of a complex, multi-wavelength, three-dimensional laser beam configuration with integrated metasurface optics. Our experiments support the development of a compact Sr optical-lattice clock, which leverages magneto-optical trapping on atomic transitions at 461 nm and 689 nm without bulk free-space optics. We integrate six, mm-scale metasurface optics on a fused-silica substrate and illuminate them with light from optical fibers. The metasurface optics provide full control of beam pointing, divergence, and polarization to create the laser configuration for a magneto-optical trap. We report the efficiency and integration of the three-dimensional visible laser beam configuration, demonstrating the suitability of metasurface optics for atomic laser cooling.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Thermography of the superfluid transition in a strongly interacting Fermi gas

Heat transport is a fundamental property of all physical systems and can serve as a fingerprint identifying different states of matter. In a normal liquid a hot spot diffuses while in a superfluid heat propagates as a wave called second sound. Despite its importance for understanding quantum materials, direct imaging of heat transport is challenging, and one usually resorts to detecting secondary effects, such as changes in density or pressure. Here we establish thermography of a strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas, a paradigmatic system whose properties relate to strongly correlated electrons, nuclear matter and neutron stars. Just as the color of a glowing metal reveals its temperature, the radiofrequency spectrum of the interacting Fermi gas provides spatially resolved thermometry with sub-nanokelvin resolution. The superfluid phase transition is directly observed as the sudden change from thermal diffusion to second sound propagation, and is accompanied by a peak in the second sound diffusivity. The method yields the full heat and density response of the strongly interacting Fermi gas, and therefore all defining properties of Landau's two-fluid hydrodynamics. Our measurements serve as a benchmark for theories of transport in strongly interacting fermionic matter.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Geometric squeezing into the lowest Landau level

The equivalence between neutral particles under rotation and charged particles in a magnetic field relates phenomena as diverse as spinning atomic nuclei, weather patterns, and the quantum Hall effect. In their quantum descriptions, translations along different directions do not commute, implying a Heisenberg uncertainty relation between spatial coordinates. Here, we exploit the ability to squeeze non-commuting variables to dynamically create a Bose-Einstein condensate occupying a single Landau gauge wavefunction in the lowest Landau level. We directly resolve the extent of the zero-point cyclotron orbits, and demonstrate geometric squeezing of the orbits' guiding centers by more than ${7}~$dB below the standard quantum limit. The condensate attains an angular momentum of more than ${1000}\,{\hbar}$ per particle, and an interatomic distance comparable to the size of the cyclotron orbits. This offers a new route towards strongly correlated fluids and bosonic quantum Hall states.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Crystallization of Bosonic Quantum Hall States

The dominance of interactions over kinetic energy lies at the heart of strongly correlated quantum matter, from fractional quantum Hall liquids, to atoms in optical lattices and twisted bilayer graphene. Crystalline phases often compete with correlated quantum liquids, and transitions between them occur when the energy cost of forming a density wave approaches zero. A prime example occurs for electrons in high magnetic fields, where the instability of quantum Hall liquids towards a Wigner crystal is heralded by a roton-like softening of density modulations at the magnetic length. Remarkably, interacting bosons in a gauge field are also expected to form analogous liquid and crystalline states. However, combining interactions with strong synthetic magnetic fields has been a challenge for experiments on bosonic quantum gases. Here, we study the purely interaction-driven dynamics of a Landau gauge Bose-Einstein condensate in and near the lowest Landau level (LLL). We observe a spontaneous crystallization driven by condensation of magneto-rotons, excitations visible as density modulations at the magnetic length. Increasing the cloud density smoothly connects this behaviour to a quantum version of the Kelvin-Helmholtz hydrodynamic instability, driven by the sheared internal flow profile of the rapidly rotating condensate. At long times the condensate self-organizes into a persistent array of droplets, separated by vortex streets, which are stabilized by a balance of interactions and effective magnetic forces.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Universal Sound Diffusion in a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas

Transport of strongly interacting fermions governs modern materials -- from the high-$T_c$ cuprates to bilayer graphene --, but also nuclear fission, the merging of neutron stars and the expansion of the early universe. Here we observe a universal quantum limit of diffusivity in a homogeneous, strongly interacting Fermi gas of atoms by studying sound propagation and its attenuation via the coupled transport of momentum and heat. In the normal state, the sound diffusivity ${D}$ monotonically decreases upon lowering the temperature $T$, in contrast to the diverging behavior of weakly interacting Fermi liquids. As the superfluid transition temperature is crossed, ${D}$ attains a universal value set by the ratio of Planck's constant ${h}$ and the particle mass ${m}$. This finding of quantum limited sound diffusivity informs theories of fermion transport, with relevance for hydrodynamic flow of electrons, neutrons and quarks.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Spectral response and contact of the unitary Fermi gas

We measure radiofrequency (rf) spectra of the homogeneous unitary Fermi gas at temperatures ranging from the Boltzmann regime through quantum degeneracy and across the superfluid transition. For all temperatures, a single spectral peak is observed. Its position smoothly evolves from the bare atomic resonance in the Boltzmann regime to a frequency corresponding to nearly one Fermi energy at the lowest temperatures. At high temperatures, the peak width reflects the scattering rate of the atoms, while at low temperatures, the width is set by the size of fermion pairs. Above the superfluid transition, and approaching the quantum critical regime, the width increases linearly with temperature, indicating non-Fermi-liquid behavior. From the wings of the rf spectra, we obtain the contact, quantifying the strength of short-range pair correlations. We find that the contact rapidly increases as the gas is cooled below the superfluid transition.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Boiling a Unitary Fermi Liquid

We study the thermal evolution of a highly spin-imbalanced, homogeneous Fermi gas with unitarity limited interactions, from a Fermi liquid of polarons at low temperatures to a classical Boltzmann gas at high temperatures. Radio-frequency spectroscopy gives access to the energy, lifetime, and short-range correlations of Fermi polarons at low temperatures $T$. In this regime, we observe a characteristic $T^2$ dependence of the spectral width, corresponding to the quasiparticle decay rate expected for a Fermi liquid. At high $T$, the spectral width decreases again towards the scattering rate of the classical, unitary Boltzmann gas, $\propto T^{-1/2}$. In the transition region between the quantum degenerate and classical regime, the spectral width attains its maximum, on the scale of the Fermi energy, indicating the breakdown of a quasiparticle description. Density measurements in a harmonic trap directly reveal the majority dressing cloud surrounding the minority spins and yield the compressibility along with the effective mass of Fermi polarons.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Homogeneous Atomic Fermi Gases

We report on the creation of homogeneous Fermi gases of ultracold atoms in a uniform potential. In the momentum distribution of a spin-polarized gas, we observe the emergence of the Fermi surface and the saturated occupation of one particle per momentum state. This directly confirms Pauli blocking in momentum space. For the spin-balanced unitary Fermi gas, we observe spatially uniform pair condensates. For thermodynamic measurements, we introduce a hybrid potential that is harmonic in one dimension and uniform in the other two. The spatially resolved compressibility reveals the superfluid transition in a spin-balanced Fermi gas, saturation in a fully polarized Fermi gas, and strong attraction in the polaronic regime of a partially polarized Fermi gas.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗