arXiv subjects

Zhongchi Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Zhongchi Zhang.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Trapping 11,000 Atoms in a Tweezer Array Generated by a Single Metasurface

The scalability of physical qubit numbers is a central challenge toward a universal fault-tolerant quantum computer. The inherent scalability of atom array quantum computers stems from the identical nature of atomic qubits, so the available qubit resource is primarily limited by the number of atoms that can be trapped and controlled. Here, we robustly trap 11,000 individual atoms in a tweezer array, thereby enabling the available qubit resource to reach the tens-of-thousands scale for the first time among all quantum computation platforms. This advance is enabled by a single metasurface, approximately 2 cm in diameter, that generates the entire tweezer array without the need for microscope objectives, thereby maximizing laser-power efficiency. The large aperture ensures a working distance of about 1.5 cm, allowing the metasurface to be placed outside the vacuum cell and avoiding the technical complications of in-vacuum operation. We further characterize the randomly loaded atom array using the statistical theory of percolation phase transitions. This work takes an important first step toward a quantum computer at the 10,000-qubit scale.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Exceptionally Slow Relaxation from Micro-canonical to Canonical Ensembles in Quasi-one-dimensional Quantum Gases

Integrability in one dimension prevents quantum thermalization and gives rise to rich many-body phenomena described by generalized hydrodynamics, which have been extensively studied over the past two decades using cold atoms in optically confined tubes. However, experimental work to date has focused primarily on low-energy states. Here, we report the experimental observation and theoretical understanding of near-integrable effects on thermalization in highly excited states. We design a protocol to prepare atoms within a high-energy window by combining a harmonic trap and a weak optical lattice: a Bose-Einstein condensate is initially prepared away from the trap center via Wannier-Stark localization and subsequently emits atoms into a selected energy window of highly excited states via Landau-Zener tunneling. By reconstructing the Wigner functions from the density distribution using a machine learning algorithm, we find that it takes an exceptionally long time, up to several seconds, for these atoms to gradually thermalize from an approximately microcanonical ensemble toward a canonical ensemble. We develop a modified Boltzmann equation that captures weak integrability breaking, yielding good agreement between theory and experiment. Our results extend the understanding of integrability and thermalization in low-dimensional quantum systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Direct Generation of an Array with 78400 Optical Tweezers Using a Single Metasurface

Scalability remains a major challenge in building practical fault-tolerant quantum computers. Currently, the largest number of qubits achieved across leading quantum platforms ranges from hundreds to thousands. In atom arrays, scalability is primarily constrained by the capacity to generate large numbers of optical tweezers, and conventional techniques using acousto-optic deflectors or spatial light modulators struggle to produce arrays much beyond $\sim 10,000$ tweezers. Moreover, these methods require additional microscope objectives to focus the light into micrometer-sized spots, which further complicates system integration and scalability. Here, we demonstrate the experimental generation of an optical tweezer array containing $280\times 280$ spots using a metasurface, nearly an order of magnitude more than most existing systems. The metasurface leverages a large number of subwavelength phase-control pixels to engineer the wavefront of the incident light, enabling both large-scale tweezer generation and direct focusing into micron-scale spots without the need for a microscope. This result shifts the scalability bottleneck for atom arrays from the tweezer generation hardware to the available laser power. Furthermore, the array shows excellent intensity uniformity exceeding $90\%$, making it suitable for homogeneous single-atom loading and paving the way for trapping arrays of more than $10,000$ atoms in the near future.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Strong interaction induced dimensional crossover in 1D quantum gas

We generated a one-dimensional quantum gas confined in an elongated optical dipole trap instead of 2D optical lattices. The sample, comprising thousands of atoms, spans several hundred micrometers and allows for independent control of temperature and chemical potential using Feshbach resonance. This allows us to directly observe and investigate the spatial distribution and associated excitation of 1D quantum gas without any ensemble averaging. In this system, we observed that the dimension of 1D gas will be popped up into 3D due to strong interaction without changing any trapping confinement. During the dimensional crossover, we found that increasing the scattering length leads to the failure of 1D theories, including 1D mean field, Yang-Yang equation, and 1D hydrodynamics. Specifically, the modified Yang-Yang equation effectively describes this 1D system at temperatures beyond the 1D threshold, but it does not account for the effects of stronger interactions. Meanwhile, we observe two possible quantized plateaus of breathing-mode oscillation frequencies predicted by 1D and 3D hydrodynamics, corresponding to weak and strong interactions respectively. And there is also a universal crossover connecting two different regimes where both hydrodynamics fail.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Optimizing the image projection of spatially incoherent light from a multimode fiber

We study the spatially incoherent light generated by a multimode fiber(MMF) in the application of image projection designed for the ultracold-atom experiments. Inspired by previous half-analytic methods concerning the incoherent light, here a full-numerical model is established to provide more quantitative descriptions, and part of results is compared with experiments. Particularly, our model about the MMF is also compatible with light propagation in free space. Based on this, we study both the intrinsic speckle and the perturbation robustness of a MMF light field, under the influence of light propagation and fiber parameters. We point out several guidelines about choosing the suitable MMF in creating a spatially incoherent light source, which is useful in the context of the ultracold-atom experiments associating with the optical potential projection.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Calibrating the absorption imaging of cold atoms under high magnetic fields

We develop a theoretical model for calibrating the absorption imaging of cold atoms under high magnetic fields. Comparing to zero or low magnetic fields, the efficiency of the absorption imaging becomes lower while it requires an additional correction factor to obtain the absolute atom number under the Beer-Lambert law. Our model is based on the rate equations and can account many experimental imperfections such as Zeeman level crossing, failures of hyperfine structures, off-resonant couplings, and low repumping efficiency, etc. Based on this method, we can precisely calculate the correction factor for atom number measurement without any empirical or fitting parameters. Meanwhile, we use a cold-atom apparatus of rubidium-85 to experimentally verify our model. Besides these, we find our work can also serve as a benchmark to measure the polarization impurity of a circular-polarized laser beam with high sensitivities. We believe this work will bring convenience for most of cold-atom experiments using absorption imaging.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2023

Probing quantum many-body correlations by universal ramping dynamics

Ramping a physical parameter is one of the most common experimental protocols in studying a quantum system, and ramping dynamics has been widely used in preparing a quantum state and probing physical properties. Here, we present a novel method of probing quantum many-body correlation by ramping dynamics. We ramp a Hamiltonian parameter to the same target value from different initial values and with different velocities, and we show that the first-order correction on the finite ramping velocity is universal and path-independent, revealing a novel quantum many-body correlation function of the equilibrium phases at the target values. We term this method as the non-adiabatic linear response since this is the leading order correction beyond the adiabatic limit. We demonstrate this method experimentally by studying the Bose-Hubbard model with ultracold atoms in three-dimensional optical lattices. Unlike the conventional linear response that reveals whether the quasi-particle dispersion of a quantum phase is gapped or gapless, this probe is more sensitive to whether the quasi-particle lifetime is long enough such that the quantum phase possesses a well-defined quasi-particle description. In the Bose-Hubbard model, this non-adiabatic linear response is significant in the quantum critical regime where well-defined quasi-particles are absent. And in contrast, this response is vanishingly small in both superfluid and Mott insulators which possess well-defined quasi-particles. Because our proposal uses the most common experimental protocol, we envision that our method can find broad applications in probing various quantum systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Bosonic fractional quantum Hall conductance in shaken honeycomb optical lattices without flat bands

We propose a scheme to realize bosonic fractional quantum Hall conductance in shaken honeycomb optical lattices. This scheme does not require a very flat band, and the necessary long-range interaction relies on s-wave scattering, which is common in many ultracold-atom experiments. By filling the lattice at 1/4 with identical bosons under Feshbach resonance, two degenerate many-body ground states share one Chern number of 1 and correspond exactly to the fractional quantum Hall conductance of 1/2. Meanwhile, we prove that the fractional quantum Hall state can be prepared by adiabatically turning on the lattice shaking, and the fractional conductance is robust in the shaken lattice. This provides an easy way to initialize and prepare the fractional quantum Hall states in ultracold-atom platforms, and it paves the way to investigate and simulate strongly correlated quantum matters with degenerate quantum gas.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗