arXiv subjects

T. S. Monteiro

Publications and source records attributed to T. S. Monteiro.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Decoherence of electron spins in isotopically enriched silicon near Clock Transitions

Despite the importance of isotopically purified samples in current experiments, there have been few corresponding studies of spin qubit decoherence using full quantum bath calculations. Isotopic purification eliminates the well-studied nuclear spin baths which usually dominate decoherence. We model the coherence of electronic spin qubits in silicon near so called Clock Transitions (CT) where experiments have electronic $T_{2e}$ times of seconds. Despite the apparent simplicity of the residual decoherence mechanism, this regime is not well understood: the state mixing which underpins CTs allows also a proliferation of contributions from usually forbidden channels (direct flip-flops with non-resonant spins); in addition, the magnitude and effects of the corresponding Overhauser fields and other detunings is not well quantified. For purely magnetic detunings, we identify a regime, potentially favourable for quantum computing, where forbidden channels are completely suppressed but spins in resonant states are fully released from Overhauser fields and applied magnetic field gradients. We show by a general argument that the enhancement between this regime and the high field limit is $< 8$, regardless of density, while enhancements of order 50 are measured experimentally. We propose that this discrepancy is likely to arise from strains of exclusively non-magnetic origin, underlining the potential of CTs for isolating and probing different types of inhomogeneities. We also identify a set of fields, "Dipolar Refocusing Points" (DRPs), where the Hahn echo fully refocuses the effect of the dipolar interaction.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Dynamical decoupling based quantum sensing: Floquet spectroscopy

Sensing the internal dynamics of individual nuclear spins or clusters of nuclear spins has recently become possible by observing the coherence decay of a nearby electronic spin: the weak magnetic noise is amplified by a periodic, multi-pulse decoupling sequence. However, it remains challenging to robustly infer underlying atomic-scale structure from decoherence traces in all but the simplest cases. We introduce Floquet spectroscopy as a versatile paradigm for analysis of these experiments, and argue it offers a number of general advantages. In particular, this technique generalises to more complex situations, offering physical insight in regimes of many-body dynamics, strong coupling and pulses of finite duration. As there is no requirement for resonant driving, the proposed spectroscopic approach permits physical interpretation of striking, but overlooked, coherence decay features in terms of the form of the avoided crossings of the underlying quasienergy eigenspectrum. This is exemplified by a set of "diamond" shaped features arising for transverse-field scans in the case of single-spin sensing by NV-centers in diamond. We investigate also applications for donors in silicon showing that the resulting tunable interaction strengths offer highly promising future sensors.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Nonlinear dynamics and millikelvin cavity-cooling of levitated nanoparticles

Optomechanical systems explore and exploit the coupling between light and the mechanical motion of matter. A nonlinear coupling offers access to rich new physics, in both the quantum and classical regimes. We investigate a dynamic, as opposed to the usually studied static, nonlinear optomechanical system, comprising of a nanosphere levitated and cooled in a hybrid electro-optical trap. An optical cavity offers readout of both linear-in-position and quadratic-in-position (nonlinear) light-matter coupling, whilst simultaneously cooling the nanosphere to millikelvin temperatures for indefinite periods of time in high vacuum. We observe cooling of the linear and non-linear motion, leading to a $10^5$ fold reduction in phonon number $n_p$, attaining final occupancies of $n_p = 100-1000$. This work puts cavity cooling of a levitated object to the quantum ground-state firmly within reach.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Decoherence of nuclear spins in the "frozen core" of an electron spin

Hybrid qubit systems combining electronic spins with nearby ("proximate") nuclear spin registers offer a promising avenue towards quantum information processing, with even multi-spin error correction protocols recently demonstrated in diamond. However, for the important platform offered by spins of donor atoms in cryogenically-cooled silicon,decoherence mechanisms of $^{29}$Si proximate nuclear spins are not yet well understood.The reason is partly because proximate spins lie within a so-called "frozen core" region where the donor electronic hyperfine interaction strongly suppresses nuclear dynamics. We investigate the decoherence of a central proximate nuclear qubit arising from quantum spin baths outside, as well as inside, the frozen core around the donor electron. We consider the effect of a very large nuclear spin bath comprising many ($\gtrsim 10^8$) weakly contributing pairs outside the frozen core. We also propose that there may be an important contribution from a few (of order $100$) symmetrically sited nuclear spin pairs ("equivalent pairs"), which were not previously considered as their effect is negligible outside the frozen core. If equivalent pairs represent a measurable source of decoherence, nuclear coherence decays could provide sensitive probes of the symmetries of electronic wavefunctions. For the phosphorus donor system, we obtain $T_{2n}$ values of order 1 second for both the "far bath" and "equivalent pair" models, confirming the suitability of proximate nuclei in silicon as very long-lived spin qubits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Keeping a spin qubit alive in natural silicon: Comparing optimal working points and dynamical decoupling

There are two distinct techniques of proven effectiveness for extending the coherence lifetime of spin qubits in environments of other spins. One is dynamical decoupling, whereby the qubit is subjected to a carefully timed sequence of control pulses; the other is tuning the qubit towards 'optimal working points' (OWPs), which are sweet-spots for reduced decoherence in magnetic fields. By means of quantum many-body calculations, we investigate the effects of dynamical decoupling pulse sequences far from and near OWPs for a central donor qubit subject to decoherence from a nuclear spin bath. Key to understanding the behavior is to analyse the degree of suppression of the usually dominant contribution from independent pairs of flip-flopping spins within the many-body quantum bath. We find that to simulate recently measured Hahn echo decays at OWPs (lowest-order dynamical decoupling), one must consider clusters of three interacting spins, since independent pairs do not even give finite $T_2$ decay times. We show that while operating near OWPs, dynamical decoupling sequences require hundreds of pulses for a single order of magnitude enhancement of $T_2$, in contrast to regimes far from OWPs, where only about ten pulses are required.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Refocusing dipolar interactions between electronic spins of donors in silicon

We note the existence of a set of magnetic field values where a simple Hahn echo sequence refocuses the dynamics of the full dipolar interaction, for spin systems of electron donors in silicon. As the refocussing occurs for both arbitrary coupling strengths and arbitrary times, these dipolar refocusing points (DRPs) offer new possibilities for regulating entanglement due to the always-on spin dipolar interaction. While the experimental effects of DRPs will be strongly diluted in the measured coherences of thermal (unpolarized) spin ensembles, we investigate possible signatures in coherence decays arising from a study of the combined effects of decoherence arising from instantaneous diffusion and direct flip-flops

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Cavity cooling a single charged nanoparticle

The development of laser cooling coupled with the ability to trap atoms and ions in electromagnetic fields, has revolutionised atomic and optical physics, leading to the development of atomic clocks, high-resolution spectroscopy and applications in quantum simulation and processing. However, complex systems, such as large molecules and nanoparticles, lack the simple internal resonances required for laser cooling. Here we report on a hybrid scheme that uses the external resonance of an optical cavity, combined with radio frequency (RF) fields, to trap and cool a single charged nanoparticle. An RF Paul trap allows confinement in vacuum, avoiding instabilities that arise from optical fields alone, and crucially actively participates in the cooling process. This system offers great promise for cooling and trapping a wide range of complex charged particles with applications in precision force sensing, mass spectrometry, exploration of quantum mechanics at large mass scales and the possibility of creating large quantum superpositions.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Quantum bath-driven decoherence of mixed spin systems

The decoherence of mixed electron-nuclear spin qubits is a topic of great current importance, but understanding is still lacking: while important decoherence mechanisms for spin qubits arise from quantum spin bath environments with slow decay of correlations, the only analytical framework for explaining observed sharp variations of decoherence times with magnetic field is based on the suppression of classical noise. Here we obtain a general expression for decoherence times of the central spin system which exposes significant differences between quantum-bath decoherence and decoherence by classical field noise. We perform measurements of decoherence times of bismuth donors in natural silicon using both electron spin resonance (ESR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) transitions, and in both cases find excellent agreement with our theory across a wide parameter range. The universality of our expression is also tested by quantitative comparisons with previous measurements of decoherence around `optimal working points' or `clock transitions' where decoherence is strongly suppressed. We further validate our results by comparison to cluster expansion simulations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Measuring central-spin interaction with a spin bath by pulsed ENDOR: Towards suppression of spin diffusion decoherence

We present pulsed electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) experiments which enable us to characterize the coupling between bismuth donor spin qubits in Si and the surrounding spin bath of 29Si impurities which provides the dominant decoherence mechanism (nuclear spin diffusion) at low temperatures (< 16 K). Decoupling from the spin bath is predicted and cluster correlation expansion simulations show near-complete suppression of spin diffusion, at optimal working points. The suppression takes the form of sharply peaked divergences of the spin diffusion coherence time, in contrast with previously identified broader regions of insensitivity to classical fluctuations. ENDOR data suggest that anisotropic contributions are comparatively weak, so the form of the divergences is largely independent of crystal orientation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Optomechanical cooling of levitated spheres with doubly-resonant fields

Optomechanical cooling of levitated dielectric particles represents a promising new approach in the quest to cool small mechanical resonators towards their quantum ground state. We investigate two-mode cooling of levitated nanospheres in a self-trapping regime. We identify a rich structure of split sidebands (by a mechanism unrelated to usual strong-coupling effects) and strong cooling even when one mode is blue detuned. We show the best regimes occur when both optical fields cooperatively cool and trap the nanosphere, where cooling rates are over an order of magnitude faster compared to corresponding single-sideband cooling rates.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Dynamics of levitated nanospheres: towards the strong coupling regime

The use of levitated nanospheres represents a new paradigm for the optomechanical cooling of a small mechanical oscillator, with the prospect of realising quantum oscillators with unprecedentedly high quality factors. We investigate the dynamics of this system, especially in the so-called self-trapping regimes, where one or more optical fields simultaneously trap and cool the mechanical oscillator. The determining characteristic of this regime is that both the mechanical frequency $ω_M$ and single-photon optomechanical coupling strength parameters $g$ are a function of the optical field intensities, in contrast to usual set-ups where $ω_M$ and $g$ are constant for the given system. We also measure the characteristic transverse and axial trapping frequencies of different sized silica nanospheres in a simple optical standing wave potential, for spheres of radii $r=20-500$\,nm, illustrating a protocol for loading single nanospheres into a standing wave optical trap that would be formed by an optical cavity. We use this data to confirm the dependence of the effective optomechanical coupling strength on sphere radius for levitated nanospheres in an optical cavity and discuss the prospects for reaching regimes of strong light-matter coupling. Theoretical semiclassical and quantum displacement noise spectra show that for larger nanospheres with $r \gtrsim 100$\,nm a range of interesting and novel dynamical regimes can be accessed. These include simultaneous hybridization of the two optical modes with the mechanical modes and parameter regimes where the system is bistable. We show that here, in contrast to typical single-optical mode optomechanical systems, bistabilities are independent of intracavity intensity and can occur for very weak laser driving amplitudes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Analysis of quantum coherence in bismuth-doped silicon: a system of strongly coupled spin qubits

There is growing interest in bismuth-doped silicon (Si:Bi) as an alternative to the well-studied proposals for silicon based quantum information processing (QIP) using phosphorus-doped silicon (Si:P). We focus here on the implications of its anomalously strong hyperfine coupling. In particular, we analyse in detail the regime where recent pulsed magnetic resonance experiments have demonstrated the potential for orders of magnitude speedup in quantum gates by exploiting transitions that are electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) forbidden at high fields. We also present calculations using a phenomenological Markovian master equation which models the decoherence of the electron spin due to Gaussian temporal magnetic field perturbations. The model quantifies the advantages of certain "optimal working points" identified as the $df/dB=0$ regions, where $f$ is the transition frequency, which come in the form of frequency minima and maxima. We show that at such regions, dephasing due to the interaction of the electron spin with a fluctuating magnetic field in the $z$ direction (usually adiabatic) is completely removed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Theoretical analysis of super-Bloch oscillations

Several recent studies have investigated the dynamics of cold atoms in optical lattices subject to AC forcing; the theoretically predicted renormalization of the tunneling amplitudes has been verified experimentally. Recent observations include global motion of the atom cloud, such as giant "Super-Bloch Oscillations" (SBOs). We show that, in order to understand unexplained features of SBOs, in addition to the renormalization of the tunneling, a new and important phase correction must be included. For Fermionic systems with strong attractive interactions, one may engineer different types of collisions and recollisions between bound-pairs and unpaired atoms.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Periodically-driven cold atoms: the role of the phase

Numerous theoretical and experimental studies have investigated the dynamics of cold atoms subjected to time periodic fields. Novel effects dependent on the amplitude and frequency of the driving field, such as Coherent Destruction of Tunneling have been identified and observed. However, in the last year or so, three distinct types of experiments have demonstrated for the first time, interesting behaviour associated with the driving phase: i.e. for systems experiencing a driving field of general form $V(x)\sin (ωt + ϕ)$, different types of large scale oscillations and directed motion were observed. We investigate and explain the phenomenon of Super-Bloch Oscillations (SBOs) in relation to the other experiments and address the role of initial phase in general. We analyse and compare the role of $ϕ$ in systems with homogeneous forces ($V'(x)= const$), such as cold atoms in shaken or amplitude-modulated optical lattices, as well as non-homogeneous forces ($V'(x)\neq const$), such as the sloshing of atoms in driven traps, and clarify the physical origin of the different $ϕ$-dependent effects.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Bismuth in silicon qubits: the role of EPR cancellation resonances

We investigate theoretically and experimentally the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of bismuth doped silicon (Si:Bi) at intermediate magnetic fields, $B \approx 0.05 -0.6$ T. We identify a previously unexplored EPR regime of "cancellation-resonances"- where part of the hyperfine coupling is resonant with the external field-induced splitting. We show this regime has interesting and experimentally accessible consequences for spectroscopy and quantum information applications. These include reduction of decoherence, fast manipulation of the coupled nuclear-electron qubit system and line narrowing in the multi-qubit case. We test our theoretical analysis by comparing with experimental X-band (9.7 GHz) EPR spectra obtained in the intermediate field regime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Doubly excited ferromagnetic spin-chain as a pair of coupled kicked rotors

We show that the dynamics of a doubly-excited 1D Heisenberg ferromagnetic chain, subject to short pulses from a parabolic magnetic field may be analyzed as a pair of quantum kicked rotors. By focusing on the two-magnon dynamics in the kicked XXZ model we investigate how the anisotropy parameter - which controls the strength of the magnon-magnon interaction - changes the nature of the coupling between the two "image" coupled Kicked Rotors. We investigate quantum state transfer possibilities and show that one may control whether the spin excitations are transmitted together, or separate from each other.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Control of bound-pair transport by periodic driving

We investigate the effect of periodic driving by an external field on systems with attractive pairing interactions. These include spin systems (like the ferromagnetic XXZ model) as well as ultracold fermionic atoms described by the attractive Hubbard model. We show that a well-known phenomenon seen in periodically driven systems--the renormalization of the exchange coupling strength--acts selectively on bound-pairs of spins/atoms, relative to magnon/bare atom states. Thus one can control the direction and speed of transport of bound-pair relative to magnon/unpaired atom states, and thus coherently achieve spatial separation of these components. Applications to recent experiments on transport with fermionic atoms in optical lattices which consist of mixtures of bound-pairs and bare atoms are discussed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Nonlinear resonances in δ-kicked Bose-Einstein Condensates

We investigate the Quantum Resonance (QR) regime of a periodically kicked atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. We find that the clearest indicator of the nonlinear dynamics is a surprisingly abrupt cut-off which appears on the main "Talbot time" QR. We show that this is due and excitation path combining both Beliaev and Landau processes, with some analogies to nonlinear self-trapping. Investigation of dynamical instability reveals further symptoms of nonlinearity such as a regime of exponential oscillations.

physics.atom-ph↗