arXiv subjects

Xiaoling Wu

Publications and source records attributed to Xiaoling Wu.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Boundary Time Crystals Induced by Local Dissipation and Long-Range Interactions

Driven-dissipative many-body system supports nontrivial quantum phases absent in equilibrium. As a prominent example, the interplay between coherent driving and collective dissipation can lead to a dynamical quantum phase that spontaneously breaks time-translation symmetry. This so-called boundary time crystal (BTC) is fragile in the presence of local dissipation, which can easily relax the system to a stationary state. In this work, we demonstrate a robust BTC that is intrinsically induced by local dissipation. We provide extensive numerical evidences to support existence of the BTC and study its behaviors in different regimes. In particular, with decreasing interaction range, we identify a transition from classical limit cycles to quantum BTCs featuring sizable spatial correlations. Our studies significantly broaden the scope of nonequilibrium phases and shed new light on experimental search for dynamical quantum matter.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Dissipative time crystal in a strongly interacting Rydberg gas

The notion of spontaneous symmetry breaking has been well established to characterize classical and quantum phase transitions of matter, such as in condensation, crystallization or quantum magnetism. Generalizations of this paradigm to the time dimension can lead to a time crystal phase, which spontaneously breaks the time translation symmetry of the system. Whereas the existence of a continuous time crystal at equilibrium has been challenged by no-go theorems, this difficulty can be circumvented by dissipation in an open system. Here, we report the experimental observation of such dissipative time crystalline order in a room-temperature atomic gas, where ground-state atoms are continuously driven to Rydberg states. The emergent time crystal is revealed by persistent oscillations of the photon transmission, and we show that the observed limit cycles arise from the coexistence and competition between distinct Rydberg components. The nondecaying autocorrelation of the oscillation, together with the robustness against temporal noises, indicate the establishment of true long-range temporal order and demonstrates the realization of a continuous time crystal.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Manipulating synthetic gauge fluxes via multicolor dressing of Rydberg-atom arrays

Arrays of highly excited Rydberg atoms can be used as powerful quantum simulation platforms. Here, we introduce an approach that makes it possible to implement fully controllable effective spin interactions in such systems. We show that optical Rydberg dressing with multicolor laser fields opens up distinct interaction channels that enable complete site-selective control of the induced interactions and favorable scaling with respect to decoherence. We apply this method to generate synthetic gauge fields for Rydberg excitations where the effective magnetic flux can be manipulated at the single-plaquette level by simply varying the phase of the local dressing field. The system can be mapped to a highly anisotropic Heisenberg model, and the resulting spin interaction opens the door for explorations of topological phenomena with nonlocal density interactions. A remarkable consequence of the interaction is the emergence of topologically protected long-range doublons, which exhibit strongly correlated motion in a chiral and robust manner.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Two-Color Optical Nonlinearity in an Ultracold Rydberg Atom Gas Mixture

We report the experimental observation of strong two-color optical nonlinearity in an ultracold gas of $^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$-$^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atom mixture. By simultaneously coupling two probe transitions of $^{85}$Rb and $^{87}$Rb atoms to Rydberg states in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) configurations, we observe significant suppression of the transparency resonance for one probe field when the second probe field is detuned at $\sim1~\mathrm{GHz}$ and hitting the EIT resonance of the other isotope. Such a cross-absorption modulation to the beam propagation dynamics can be described by two coupled nonlinear wave equations we develope. We further demonstrate that the two-color optical nonlinearity can be tuned by varying the density ratio of different atomic isotopes, which highlights its potential for exploring strongly interacting multi-component fluids of light.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2021

A concise review of Rydberg atom based quantum computation and quantum simulation

Quantum information processing based on Rydberg atoms emerged as a promising direction two decades ago. Recent experimental and theoretical progresses have shined exciting light on this avenue. In this concise review, we will briefly introduce the basics of Rydberg atoms and their recent applications in associated areas of neutral atom quantum computation and simulation. We shall also include related discussions on quantum optics with Rydberg atomic ensembles, which are increasingly used to explore quantum computation and quantum simulation with photons.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Comparison of downscaling techniques for high resolution soil moisture mapping

Soil moisture impacts exchanges of water, energy and carbon fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere. Passive microwave remote sensing at L-band can capture spatial and temporal patterns of soil moisture in the landscape. Both ESA and NASA have launched L-band radiometers, in the form of the SMOS and SMAP satellites respectively, to monitor soil moisture globally, every 3-day at about 40 km resolution. However, their coarse scale restricts the range of applications. While SMAP included an L-band radar to downscale the radiometer soil moisture to 9 km, the radar failed after 3 months and this initial approach is not applicable to developing a consistent long term soil moisture product across the two missions anymore. Existing optical-, radiometer-, and oversampling-based downscaling methods could be an alternative to the radar-based approach for delivering such data. Nevertheless, retrieval of a consistent high resolution soil moisture product remains a challenge, and there has been no comprehensive inter-comparison of the alternate approaches. This research undertakes an assessment of the different downscaling approaches using the SMAPEx-4 field campaign data

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2017

Material and structural optimization of metal nanowire/AAO composites for high-temperature solar thermal application

In this paper, we study the solar selective absorbing properties of metal nanowire array (NWA) / anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) composites at 1000 K via numerical simulation. The materials and structural parameters which influence the wavelength absorption between 0.28 and 10 microns are simulated and optimized. The results reveal that W NWA / AAO composites with nanowire length of 7.3 microns, fill factor of 0.03, and AAO template thickness of 0.1 microns exhibits the best selective absorption. This composite has 0.90 solar absorptivity and 0.045 thermal emissivity in 1000 K, and shows a photothermal conversion efficiency of 71.5 %.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗