Study of the optimal duty cycle and pumping rate for square-wave amplitude-modulated Bell–Bloom magnetometers

We theoretically and experimentally study the optimal duty cycle and pumping rate for square-wave amplitudemodulated Bell–Bloom magnetometers.The theoretical and the experimental results are in good agreement for duty cycles and corresponding pumping rates ranging over 2 orders of magnitude.Our study gives the maximum field response as a function of duty cycle and pumping rate.Especially,for a fixed duty cycle,the maximum field response is obtained when the time averaged pumping rate,which is the product of pumping rate and duty cycle,is equal to the transverse relaxation rate in the dark.By using a combination of small duty cycle and large pumping rate,one can increase the maximum field response by up to a factor of 2 or π /2,relative to that of the sinusoidal modulation or the 50% duty cycle square-wave modulation respectively.We further show that the same pumping condition is also practically optimal for the sensitivity due to the fact that the signal at resonance is insensitive to the fluctuations of pumping rate and duty cycle.     

Optical nuclear spin polarization in quantum dots

Hyperfine interaction between electron spin and randomly oriented nuclear spins is a key issue of electron coherence for quantum information/computation. We propose an efficient way to establish high polarization of nuclear spins and reduce the intrinsic nuclear spin fluctuations. Here, we polarize the nuclear spins in semiconductor quantum dot(QD) by the coherent population trapping(CPT) and the electric dipole spin resonance(EDSR) induced by optical fields and ac electric fields. By tuning the optical fields, we can obtain a powerful cooling background based on CPT for nuclear spin polarization. The EDSR can enhance the spin flip–flop rate which may increase the cooling efficiency. With the help of CPT and EDSR, an enhancement of 1300 times of the electron coherence time can be obtained after a 10-ns preparation time.     

Frequency Stability of Atomic Clocks Based on Coherent Population Trapping Resonance in ^85Rb

An atomic clock system based on coherent population trapping （CPT） resonance in 85Rb is reported, while most past works about the CPT clock are in ST Rb. A new modulation method （full-hyperfine-frequency-splitting modulation） is presented to reduce the effect of light shift to improve the frequency stability of the CPT clock in SSRb. The experimental results show that the short-term frequency stability of the CPT clock in SSRb is in the order of 10^-10/s and the long-term frequency stability can achieve 1.5 × 10^-11/80000s, which performs as well as 87 Rb in CPT resonance. This very good frequency stability performance associated with the low-cost and low-power properties of SSRb indicates that an atomic clock based on CPT in SSRb should be a promising candidate for making the chip scale atomic clock.     

Creation of Coherent Superposition States in Multilevel Systems

A powerful approach to generate multilevel superposition state in A-type manifold of levels is proposed. In the analysis, we introduce a group of rotations to transform the coupled system to a simpler form, which involves one coupled and several decoupled, dark states in the ground state manifold. Then an arbitrary superposition state of initial and final states can be created. In particular, when the Rabi frequencies of the Stokes pulses have equal magnitudes, a superposition state （equal population of the （n - 2） superposition states） will be generated. A numerical simulation of coherence generation is given. It is shown that a small transient population in metastable state decreases as the intensity of Stokes pulses increases. Experimental implementation in Neon atom is given.     

Spatial correlation properties and phase singularity annihilation of Gaussian Schell-model beams in the focal region

By using the generalized Debye diffraction integral, this paper studies the spatial correlation properties and phase singularity annihilation of apertured Gaussian Schell-model （GSM） beams in the focal region. It is shown that the width of the spectral degree of coherence can be larger, less than or equal to the corresponding width of spectral density, which depends not only on the scalar coherence length of the beams, but also on the truncation parameter. With a gradual increase of the truncation parameter, a pair of phase singularities of the spectral degree of coherence in the focal plane approaches each other, resulting in subwavelength structures. Finally, the annihilation of pairs of phase singularities takes place at a certain value of the truncation parameter. With increasing scalar coherence length, the annihilation occurs at the larger truncation parameter. However, the creation process of phase singularities outside the focal plane is not found for GSM beams.     

Properties of a dielectric plate using entangled two-photon states

We theoretically study the properties of a dielectric plate with a modified Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. The fourth-order correlation functions are calculated in two regimes, which are divided depending on the relative size between the thickness of the dielectric plate and the one-photon coherence length. When the thickness of the dielectric plate is less than the one-photon coherence length, a novel modulation behavior of the coincidence rate is observed, which has not been discussed before. If the thickness of the dielectric plate is larger than the one-photon coherence length, coalescence and anti-coalescence are observed. The obtained results highlight the effects of a linear optical element on fourth-order interference.     

Modification of the spontaneous emission of quantum dots near the surface of a three-dimensional colloidal photonic crystal

This paper demonstrates experimentally and numerically that a significant modification of spontaneous emission rate can be achieved near the surface of a three-dimensional photonic crystal.In experiments,semiconductor core-shell quantum dots are intentionally confined in a thin polymer film on which a three-dimensional colloidal photonic crystal is fabricated.The spontaneous emission rate of quantum dots is characterised by conventional and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements.The modification of the spontaneous emission rate,which is reflected in the change of spectral shape and PL lifetime,is clearly observed.While an obvious increase in the PL lifetime is found at most wavelengths in the band gap,a significant reduction in the PL lifetime by one order of magnitude is observed at the short-wavelength band edge.Numerical simulation reveals a periodic modulation of spontaneous emission rate with decreasing modulation strength when an emitter is moved away from the surface of the photonic crystal.It is supported by the fact that the modification of spontaneous emission rate is not pronounced for quantum dots distributed in a thick polymer film where both enhancement and suppression are present simultaneously.This finding provides a simple and effective way for improving the performance of light emitting devices.     

Complementarity between quantum coherence and mixedness:a majorization approach

Quantum coherence is a relevant resource for various quantum information processing tasks, but it is fragile since it is generally affected by environmental noise. This is reflected in the loss of purity of the system, which in turn limits the amount of quantum coherence of it. As a consequence, a complementarity relation between coherence and mixedness arises. Previous works characterize this complementarity through inequalities between the ?₁-norm of coherence and linear entropy, an...     

The effect of degenerate atomic levels on the field state dissipation in two—photon Jaynes—Cummings model

The dissipation of the field in the two-photonJaynes-Cummings model (JCM) with degenerate atomic levels was studied.The initial degenerate atomic state affects the field coherence loss,when the degenerate atom is initially in an equal probability superposition state,the field coherence loss is smallest,It is found that the degeneracy of the atomic level increases the period of entanglement between the atom and the field.When the degeneracy was considered,the coherence properties of the field could be affected by the reservoir qualitatively,if a nonlinear two-photon process is involved.This is different from the dissipation of one-photon JCM with degenerate atomic levels.     

Characterizing variable for the critical point in momentum space

The possible experimentally observable signal in momentum space for the critical point, which is free from the contamination of statistical fluctuations, is discussed. It is shown that the higher order scaled moment of transverse momentum can serve as an appropriate signal for the critical point, provided the transverse momentum distribution has a sudden change when energy increases passing through this point. A 2-D percolation model with a linear temperature gradient is constructed to check this suggestion. A sudden change of third order scaled moment of transverse momentum is observed.     

Entangled Radiation through an Atomic Reservoir Controlled by Coherent Population Trapping

We show that it is possible to generate Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen （EPR） entangled radiation using an atomic reservoir controlled by coherent population trapping. A beam of three-level atoms is initially prepared in nearcoherent population trapping （CPT） state and acts as a long-lived coherence-controlled reservoir. Four-wave mixing leads to amplification of cavity modes resonant with RabJ sidebands of the atomic dipole transitions. The cavity modes evolve Jnto an EPR state, whose degree of entanglement is controlled by the intensities and the frequencies of the driving fields. This scheme uses the long-lived CPT coherence and is robust against spontaneous emission of the atomic beam. At the same time, this scheme is implemented in a one-step procedure, not in a two-step procedure as was required in Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 （2007） 240401.     

Evolution of population in an equispaced three-level ladder-type atomic system

Transient response of nearly equispaced three-level ladder-type atomic system with a broad-band squeezed vacuum (SV) is investigated. We focus our attention in the interplay between the quantum interference and the squeezed field on the population distribution. It is shown that an atomic population inversion can be attained on one of the optical transitions due to the SV. Additionally, we show, with the proper value of the relative phase, the SV can also lead to unexpected population inversion on the transition between two different levels.     

Anomalous Effects of Driving Field Linewidth on a One-Atom Dressed-State Laser

We examine the effects of driving field linewidth on a one-atom dressed state laser. Unexpectedly, the linewidth leads to anomalous effects on the cavity field. The mean photon number of the cavity field is raised or the normalized variance is reduced to a certain degree as the linewidth increases for an appropriate range of parameters. The responsible mechanism is attributed to the fluctuation-induced modification of the electromagnetic reservoir where the atom stays.     

Coherence induced by incoherent pumping field and decay process in three-level Λ type atomic system

Following the method proposed by Kozlov et al. [Victor V. Kozlov, Yuri Rostovtsev, Marlan O. Scully, Phys. Rev. A 74 (2006) 063829], we have investigated the atomic coherence induced by incoherent pump and vacuum spontaneous decay process in a Λ type three-level atomic system. The system can be in a coherent population trapping state and multi-steady states in different conditions. Interestingly, two kinds of new states are derived from the system with different pumping rate and decaying rate. They are the “robust” steady state and the “weak” steady state. Under the action of pump field and vacuum reservoir, these two kinds of states exhibit stable or unstable characteristics, respectively. Moreover, by investigating the difference between these states, we reveal the mechanism of coherence excitation and level-population transition. The special feature of the Λ atomic system will promise fruitful applications in quantum optics.     

Reduction of quantum phase fluctuations in intermediate states

Recently we have shown that the reduction of the Carruthers-Nieto symmetric quantum phase fluctuation parameter (U) with respect to its coherent state value corresponds to an antibunched state, but the converse is not true. Consequently reduction of U is a stronger criterion of nonclassicality than the lowest order antibunching. Here we have studied the possibilities of reduction of U in intermediate states by using the Barnett-Pegg formalism. We have shown that the reduction of phase fluctuation parameter U can be seen in different intermediate states, such as binomial state, generalized binomial state, hypergeometric state, negative binomial state, and photon added coherent state. It is also shown that the depth of nonclassicality can be controlled by various parameters related to intermediate states. Further, we have provided specific examples of antibunched states, for which U is greater than its Poissonian state value.     

Local Modulation of Double Electromagnetically Induced Transparency Spectrum

The double electromagnetically induced transparency induced by two coupling fields can be realized in a fourlevel tripod-type atom. Such double transparency spectra can be locally modulated by using the weak coherent fields to perturb the coupling transitions. These investigations within this scheme can be independent of Doppler broadening by properly orienting these fieds.     

Interaction of a two-level atom with squeezed light

We consider a degenerate parametric oscillator whose cavity contains a two-level atom. Applying the Heisenberg and quantum Langevin equations, we calculate in the bad-cavity limit the mean photon number, the quadrature variance, and the power spectrum for the cavity mode in general and for the signal light and fluorescent light in particular. We also obtain the normalized second-order correlation function for the fluorescent light. We find that the presence of the two-level atom leads to a decrease in the degree of squeezing of the signal light. It so turns out that the fluorescent light is in a squeezed state and the power spectrum consists of a single peak only.     

Quantum coherence effects in a four-level diamond-shape atomic system

A symmetric four-level closed-loop ? type (the diamond-shape) atomic system driven by four coherent optical fields is investigated. The system shows rich quantum interference and coherence features. When symmetry of the system is broken, interesting phenomena such as single and double-dark resonances appear. As a result, the controllable double electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect is generated, which will facilitate the implementation of quantum phase gate (QPG) operation.     

Experimental Study on Practical Quantum Key Distribution Scheme with Time-Multiplexed Technique

We present a scheme that is capable of detecting photon numbers during the quantum key distribution (QKD) based on an improved differential phase shift (DPS) system without Trojan horse attack. A time-multiplexed detector (TMD) is set in for the photon-number resolution. Two fibre loops are used for detecting photon numbers as well as distributing keys. The long-term stabilization is guaranteed by two Faraday mirrors (FM) at Bob's site to automatically compensate for polarization defect. Our experimental study (90km QKD is completed) indicates that such a system is stable and secure which nearly reaches the performance of a single photon scheme.     

On a heuristic point of view related to quantum nonequilibrium statistical mechanics

In this paper I propose a new way for counting the microstates of a system out of equilibrium. As, according to quantum mechanics, things happen as if a given particle can be found in more than one state at once, I extend this concept to propose the coherent access by a particle to the available states of a system. By coherent access I mean the possibility for the particle to act as if it is populating more than one microstate at once. This hypothesis has experimental implications, since the thermodynamical probability and, as a consequence, the Bose-Einstein distribution as well as the argument of the Boltzmann factor is modified.