arXiv subjects

Sabrina Burgardt

Publications and source records attributed to Sabrina Burgardt.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Enhancing the power of a quantum heat engine via control of the system--reservoir coupling

The non-equilibrium properties of open quantum systems are determined by the microscopic laws governing energy exchange with their environment. In particular, an enhancement of the performance of quantum heat engines has been predicted by speeding up the dynamics through control of the system--bath interaction. However, direct microscopic control of heat transfer between the machine and the reservoir has remained elusive so far. Here, we experimentally demonstrate such control in a quantum Otto engine realized with ultracold Cs-133 atoms coupled to an atomic reservoir of ultracold Rb-87 atoms. Heat exchange between the two is mediated by inelastic s-wave collisions whose energy-dependent scattering cross sections lead to an asymmetric equilibration dynamics in the isochoric heating and cooling strokes. By tuning the kinetic temperature of the atomic reservoir, we modify the associated microscopic scattering rates, and thereby the heat transfer law, giving control over the time allocation within the engine cycle through control over the microscopic, multi-exponential relaxation dynamics. This enables power output optimization at fixed efficiency. Our results establish microscopic control of system-reservoir interactions as a tool for manipulating heat flow at the nanoscale and engineering the finite-time performance of quantum thermal machines.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Quantum-enabled active matter at the atomic scale

Active matter comprises particles that extract energy from their local environment and convert it into motion. Although active particles have been miniaturized down to the nanoscale, realizing activity at the fundamentally smaller scale of individual atoms remains an open challenge, where quantum effects become increasingly relevant. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that individual Cs-133 atoms confined in an optical dipole trap extract energy from an ultracold bath of Rb-87 atoms via quantum-mechanical spin interactions and convert it into active motion. We quantitatively reproduce the resulting dynamics using a parameter-free active Langevin model derived from kinetic theory and support it with event-driven Monte Carlo collision simulations. The microscopic origin of activity is identified as quantum spin exchange, which transfers discrete internal spin energy into kinetic motion. Our work establishes a quantum-enabled route to active matter at the fundamental size limit of single atoms and opens perspectives for exploring the interplay of activity, quantum physics, and mesoscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Indication of critical scaling in time during the relaxation of an open quantum system

Phase transitions correspond to the singular behavior of physical systems in response to continuous control parameters like temperature or external fields. Near continuous phase transitions, associated with the divergence of a correlation length, universal power-law scaling behavior with critical exponents independent of microscopic system details is found. Recently, dynamical quantum phase transitions and universal scaling have been predicted and also observed in the non-equilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum systems after a quench, with time playing the role of the control parameter. However, signatures of such critical phenomena in time in open systems, whose dynamics is driven by the dissipative contact to an environment, were so far elusive. Here, we present results indicating that critical scaling with respect to time can also occur during the relaxation dynamics of an open quantum system described by mixed states. We experimentally measure the relaxation dynamics of the large atomic spin of individual Caesium atoms induced by the dissipative coupling via spin-exchange processes to an ultracold Bose gas of Rubidium atoms. For initial states far from equilibrium, the entropy of the spin state is found to peak in time, transiently approaching its maximum possible value, before eventually relaxing to its lower equilibrium value. Moreover, a finite-size scaling analysis based on numerical simulations shows that it corresponds to a critical point with respect to time of the dissipative system in the limit of large system sizes. It is signalled by the divergence of a characteristic length at a critical time, characterized by critical exponents that are found to be independent of system details.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2023

Measuring the environment of a Cs qubit with dynamical decoupling sequences

We report the experimental implementation of dynamical decoupling on a small, non-interacting ensemble of up to 25 optically trapped, neutral Cs atoms. The qubit consists of the two magnetic-insensitive Cs clock states $\left| F=3, m_F=0 \right>$ and $\left|F=4, m_F=0\right>$, which are coupled by microwave radiation. We observe a significant enhancement of the coherence time when employing Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) dynamical decoupling. A CPMG sequence with ten refocusing pulses increases the coherence time of 16.2(9) ms by more than one order of magnitude to 178(2) ms. In addition, we make use of the filter function formalism and utilize the CPMG sequence to measure the background noise floor affecting the qubit coherence, finding a power-law noise spectrum $1/ω^α$ with $\mathitα = 0.89(2)$. This finding is in very good agreement with an independent measurement of the noise in the intensity of the trapping laser. Moreover, the measured coherence evolutions also exhibit signatures of low-frequency noise originating at distinct frequencies. Our findings point toward noise spectroscopy of engineered atomic baths through single-atom dynamical decoupling in a system of individual Cs impurities immersed in an ultracold $^{87}$Rb bath.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Power of a quasi-spin quantum Otto engine at negative effective temperature

Heat engines usually operate by exchanging heat with thermal baths at different (positive) temperatures. Nonthermal baths may, however, lead to a significant performance boost. We here experimentally analyze the power output of a single-atom quantum Otto engine realized in the quasi-spin states of individual Cesium atoms interacting with an atomic Rubidium bath. From measured time-resolved populations of the quasi-spin state, we determine the dynamics during the cycle of both the effective spin temperature and of the quantum fluctuations of the engine, which we quantify with the help of the Shannon entropy. We find that power is enhanced in the negative temperature regime, and that it reaches its maximum value at half the maximum entropy. Quantitatively, operating our engine at negative effective temperatures increases the power by up to 30% compared to operation at positive temperatures, including even the case of infinite temperature. At the same time, entering the negative temperature regime allows for reducing the entropy to values close to zero, offering highly stable operation at high power output. We furthermore numerically investigate the influence of the size of the Hilbert space on the performance of the quantum engine by varying the number of levels of the working medium. Our work thereby paves the way to fluctuation control in the operation of high-power and efficient single-atom quantum engines.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Coherent and dephasing spectroscopy for single-impurity probing of an ultracold bath

We report Ramsey spectroscopy on the clock states of individual Cs impurities immersed in an ultracold Rb bath. We record both the interaction-driven phase evolution and the decay of fringe contrast of the Ramsey interference signal to obtain information about bath density or temperature nondestructively. The Ramsey fringe is modified by a differential shift of the collisional energy when the two Cs states superposed interact with the Rb bath. This differential shift is directly affected by the mean gas density and the details of the Rb-Cs interspecies scattering length, affecting the phase evolution and the contrast of the Ramsey signal. Additionally, we enhance the temperature dependence of the phase shift preparing the system close to a low-magnetic-field Feshbach resonance where the $s$-wave scattering length is significantly affected by the collisional (kinetic) energy. Analyzing coherent phase evolution and decay of the Ramsey fringe contrast, we probe the Rb cloud's density and temperature. Our results point at using individual impurity atoms as nondestructive quantum probes in complex quantum systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

An endoreversible quantum heat engine driven by atomic collisions

Quantum heat engines are subjected to quantum fluctuations related to their discrete energy spectra. Such fluctuations question the reliable operation of quantum engines in the microscopic realm. We here realize an endoreversible quantum Otto cycle in the large quasi-spin states of Cesium impurities immersed in an ultracold Rubidium bath. Endoreversible machines are internally reversible and irreversible losses only occur via thermal contact. We employ quantum control over both machine and bath to suppress internal dissipation and regulate the direction of heat transfer that occurs via inelastic spin-exchange collisions. We additionally use full-counting statistics of individual atoms to monitor heat exchange between engine and bath at the level of single quanta, and evaluate average and variance of the power output. We optimize the performance as well as the stability of the quantum engine, achieving high efficiency, large power output and small power output fluctuations.

quant-ph↗