arXiv subjects

Zejian Ren

Publications and source records attributed to Zejian Ren.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Atomic oven with rapid thermal response for atom experiments

Atomic oven generating controllable atomic beam flux plays a fundamental role in quantum gas experiments. Here, we report a new heater design that can heat up an high temperature atomic oven with fast thermal response. The new heater shows a heating rate improved by 7.65 times comparing to that of the conventional resistive heater while the crucible temperature can heated up to 1200K. With this oven, we generated a collimated ytterbium beam with flux exceeding $10^{14} \text{ atoms/s}$ at 823 K. We believe that our design offers a promising solution for shortening experimental dead time and improve the experiment efficiency in cold atom researches.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2024

Apparatus for producing single strontium atoms in an optical tweezer array

We outline an experimental setup for efficiently preparing a tweezer array of $^{88}$Sr atoms. Our setup uses permanent magnets to maintain a steady-state two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (MOT) which results in a loading rate of up to $10^{8}$ s$^{-1}$ at 5 mK for the three-dimensional blue MOT. This enables us to trap $2\times10^{6}$ $^{88}$Sr atoms at 2 $μ$K in a narrow-line red MOT with the $^{1}$S$_{0}$ $\rightarrow$ $^{3}$P$_{1}$ intercombination transition at 689 nm. With the Sisyphus cooling and pairwise loss processes, single atoms are trapped and imaged in 813 nm optical tweezers, exhibiting a lifetime of 2.5 minutes. We further investigate the survival fraction of a single atom in the tweezers and characterize the optical tweezer array using a release and recapture technique. Our platform paves the way for potential applications in atomic clocks, precision measurements, and quantum simulations.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2024

Creation of a tweezer array for cold atoms utilizing a generative neural network

Optical tweezers have become essential tools for dynamically manipulating objects, ranging from microspheres or biological molecules to neutral atoms. In this study, we demonstrate the creation of tweezer arrays using a generative neural network, which allows for the trapping of neutral atoms with tunable atom arrays. We have successfully loaded cold strontium atoms into various optical tweezer patterns generated by a spatial light modulator (SLM) integrated with generative models. Our approach shortens the process time to control the SLM wtih minimal time delay, eliminating the need for repeated re-optimization of the hologram for the SLM.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Multi-reservoir enhanced loading of tweezer atom arrays

We introduce a species-independent method for improved loading into a single-atom optical tweezer array, utilizing iterative loading with multiple reservoir tweezers. Demonstrated with dual wavelength tweezer arrays of $^{88}$Sr atoms, our approach achieves a 96$\%$ loading rate after four reload cycles. This method can significantly enhance existing tweezer rearrangement protocols, potentially reducing iteration time and optical power consumption, thereby enabling a larger number of atoms in a quantum logic device.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2024

Complete Interband Transitions for Non-Hermitian Spin-Orbit-Coupled Cold-Atom Systems

Recently, synthetic spin-orbit coupling has been introduced into cold-atom systems for more flexible control of the Hamiltonian, which was further made time-varying through two-photon detuning to achieve dynamic control of the cold-atom state. While an intraband transition can be adiabatically obtained, a complete interband transition, rather than a superposition of different bands, obtained through fast sweeping is usually guaranteed by having the positions of the initial and final states be far away from any band gap in the quasimomentum space. Here, by introducing an additional non-Hermitian parameter through an atom-loss contrast together with two-photon detuning as two controllable external parameters, both intraband and complete interband transitions can be achieved independent of the positions of the initial and final states. In addition, a point-source diagram approach in the 2D external parameter space is developed to visualize and predict the locations of any nonadiabatic transitions. This control protocol can have potential applications in quantum state control and quantum simulations using cold-atom systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Observing a topological phase transition with deep neural networks from experimental images of ultracold atoms

Although classifying topological quantum phases have attracted great interests, the absence of local order parameter generically makes it challenging to detect a topological phase transition from experimental data. Recent advances in machine learning algorithms enable physicists to analyze experimental data with unprecedented high sensitivities, and identify quantum phases even in the presence of unavoidable noises. Here, we report a successful identification of topological phase transitions using a deep convolutional neural network trained with low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) experimental data obtained in a symmetry-protected topological system of spin-orbit-coupled fermions. We apply the trained network to unseen data to map out a whole phase diagram, which predicts the positions of the two topological phase transitions that are consistent with the results obtained by using the conventional method on higher SNR data. By visualizing the filters and post-convolutional results of the convolutional layer, we further find that the CNN uses the same information to make the classification in the system as the conventional analysis, namely spin imbalance, but with an advantage concerning SNR. Our work highlights the potential of machine learning techniques to be used in various quantum systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Chiral control of quantum states in non-Hermitian spin-orbit-coupled fermions

Spin-orbit coupling is an essential mechanism underlying quantum phenomena such as the spin Hall effect and topological insulators. It has been widely studied in well-isolated Hermitian systems, but much less is known about the role dissipation plays in spin-orbit-coupled systems. Here, we implement dissipative spin-orbit-coupled bands filled with ultracold fermions, and observe parity-time symmetry breaking as a result of the competition between the spin-orbit coupling and dissipation. Tunable dissipation, introduced by state-selective atom loss, enables us to tune the energy gap and close it at the critical dissipation value, the so-called exceptional point. In the vicinity of the critical point, the state evolution exhibits a chiral response, which enables us to tune the spin-orbit coupling and dissipation dynamically, revealing topologically robust chiral spin transfer when the quantum state encircles the exceptional point. This demonstrates that we can explore non-Hermitian topological states with spin-orbit coupling.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Heuristic machinery for thermodynamic studies of SU(N) fermions with neural networks

The power of machine learning (ML) provides the possibility of analyzing experimental measurements with an unprecedented sensitivity. However, it still remains challenging to probe the subtle effects directly related to physical observables and to understand physics behind from ordinary experimental data using ML. Here, we introduce a heuristic machinery by using machine learning analysis. We use our machinery to guide the thermodynamic studies in the density profile of ultracold fermions interacting within SU($N$) spin symmetry prepared in a quantum simulator. Although such spin symmetry should manifest itself in a many-body wavefuction, it is elusive how the momentum distribution of fermions, the most ordinary measurement, reveals the effect of spin symmetry. Using a fully trained convolutional neural network (NN) with a remarkably high accuracy of $\sim$94$\%$ for detection of the spin multiplicity, we investigate how the accuracy depends on various less-pronounced effects with filtered experimental images. Guided by our machinery, we directly measure a thermodynamic compressibility from density fluctuations within the single image. Our machine learning framework shows a potential to validate theoretical descriptions of SU($N$) Fermi liquids, and to identify less-pronounced effects even for highly complex quantum matter with minimal prior understanding.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Evidence for Bosonization in a three-dimensional gas of SU($N$) fermions

Blurring the boundary between bosons and fermions lies at the heart of a wide range of intriguing quantum phenomena in multiple disciplines, ranging from condensed matter physics and atomic, molecular and optical physics to high energy physics. One such example is a multi-component Fermi gas with SU($N$) symmetry that is expected to behave like spinless bosons in the large $N$ limit, where the large number of internal states weakens constraints from the Pauli exclusion principle. However, bosonization in SU($N$) fermions has never been established in high dimensions where exact solutions are absent. Here, we report direct evidence for bosonization in a SU($N$) fermionic ytterbium gas with tunable $N$ in three dimensions (3D). We measure contacts, the central quantity controlling dilute quantum gases, from the momentum distribution, and find that the contact per spin approaches a constant with a 1/$N$ scaling in the low fugacity regime consistent with our theoretical prediction. This scaling signifies the vanishing role of the fermionic statistics in thermodynamics, and allows us to verify bosonization through measuring a single physical quantity. Our work delivers a highly controllable quantum simulator to exchange the bosonic and fermionic statistics through tuning the internal degrees of freedom in any generic dimensions. It also suggests a new route towards exploring multi-component quantum systems and their underlying symmetries with contacts.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Effective statistical fringe removal algorithm for high-sensitivity imaging of ultracold atoms

High-sensitivity imaging of ultracold atoms is often challenging when interference patterns are imprinted on the imaging light. Such image noises result in low signal-to-noise ratio and limit the capability to extract subtle physical quantities. Here we demonstrate an advanced fringe removal algorithm for absorption imaging of ultracold atoms, which efficiently suppresses unwanted fringe patterns using a small number of sample images without taking additional reference images. The protocol is based on an image decomposition and projection method with an extended image basis. We apply this scheme to raw absorption images of degenerate Fermi gases for the measurement of atomic density fluctuations and temperatures. The quantitative analysis shows that image noises can be efficiently removed with only tens of reference images, which manifests the efficiency of our protocol. Our algorithm would be of particular interest for the quantum emulation experiments in which several physical parameters need to be scanned within a limited time duration.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Collective excitations in two-dimensional SU($N$) Fermi gases with tunable spin

We measure collective excitations of a harmonically trapped two-dimensional (2D) SU($N$) Fermi gas of $^{173}$Yb confined to a stack of layers formed by a one-dimensional optical lattice. Quadrupole and breathing modes are excited and monitored in the collisionless regime $\lvert\ln(k_F a_{2D})\rvert\gg 1$ with tunable spin. We observe that the quadrupole mode frequency decreases with increasing number of spin components due to the amplification of the interaction effect by $N$ in agreement with a theoretical prediction based on 2D kinetic equations. The breathing mode frequency, however, is measured to be twice the dipole oscillation frequency regardless of $N$. We also follow the evolution of collective excitations in the dimensional crossover from two to three dimensions and characterize the damping rate of quadrupole and breathing modes for tunable SU($N$) fermions, both of which reveal the enhanced inter-particle collisions for larger spin. Our result paves the way to investigate the collective property of 2D SU($N$) Fermi liquid with enlarged spin.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Observation of nodal-line semimetal with ultracold fermions in an optical lattice

Observation of topological phases beyond two-dimension (2D) has been an open challenge for ultracold atoms. Here, we realize for the first time a 3D spin-orbit coupled nodal-line semimetal in an optical lattice and observe the bulk line nodes with ultracold fermions. The realized topological semimetal exhibits an emergent magnetic group symmetry. This allows to detect the nodal lines by effectively reconstructing the 3D topological band from a series of measurements of integrated spin textures, which precisely render spin textures on the parameter-tuned magnetic-group-symmetric planes. The detection technique can be generally applied to explore 3D topological states of similar symmetries. Furthermore, we observe the band inversion lines from topological quench dynamics, which are bulk counterparts of Fermi arc states and connect the Dirac points, reconfirming the realized topological band. Our results demonstrate the first approach to effectively observe 3D band topology, and open the way to probe exotic topological physics for ultracold atoms in high dimensions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Collective dipole oscillations of a spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas

The collective dipole mode is induced and measured in a spin-orbit (SO) coupled degenerate Fermi gas of $^{173}$Yb atoms. Using a differential optical Stark shift, we split the degeneracy of three hyperfine states in the ground manifold, and independently couple consecutive spin states with the equal Raman transitions. A relatively long-lived spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas, readily being realized with a narrow optical transition, allows to explore a single-minimum dispersion where three minima of spin-1 system merge into and to monitor collective dipole modes of fermions in the strong coupling regime. The measured oscillation frequency of the dipole mode is compared with the semi-classical calculation in the single-particle regime. Our work should pave the way towards the characterization of spin-orbit-coupled fermions with large spin $s>\frac{1}{2}$ in the strong coupling regime.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗