Electrodynamic trap for neutral atoms

An electrodynamic trap is proposed that stores cold neutral atoms or nonpolar molecules in their ground state as well as in excited states by means of the quadratic Stark effect. The trap uses an oscillating hexapole field and a superposed static homogeneous field. The dynamics of an atom in this trap can be described as a harmonic oscillation in a static pseudopotential. Stability criteria and sample parameters for a number of atomic species are given. Received: 7 August 1998 / Received in final form: 7 January 1999     

Dynamic light beam deflection caused by space charge waves in photorefractive crystals

During holographic recording in photorefractive crystals (BSO, BGO, and BTO) by an oscillating interference pattern we observe a strong dynamic deflection of the laser beams reflected from the crystal’s surface. The theoretical treatment shows that this new effect is associated with a nonlinear interaction of space charge gratings resulting in a quasi-homogeneous oscillating space charge field which provides deformations of the crystal via the piezoelectric effect. Received: 3 August 1999 / Accepted 5 August 1999 / Published online: 8 September 1999     

Interwell excitons in a lateral potential well in an inhomogeneous electric field

The luminescence of interwell excitons in double quantum wells based on GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor heterostructures (n-i-n structures) in a lateral trap prepared with the use of an inhomogeneous electric field was studied at helium temperatures. A rather strong and inhomogeneous electric field occurred in the depth of the heterostructure when a current passed through the contact between the conducting tip of a tunneling microscope and the heterostructure surface to the bulk region containing a built-in gate. Because of the Stark shift of energy bands in the electric field, the photoexcited electrons and holes are spatially separated in neighboring quantum wells by a tunnel-transparent barrier and are bound into interwell quasi-two-dimensional excitons. These excitons have a dipole moment even in the ground state. Therefore, electrostatic forces in the inhomogeneous electric field cause the excitons to move in the plane of quantum wells toward the maximum field region and eventually accumulate in the lateral trap artificially prepared in such a way. The maximum trap depth achieved through the inhomogeneous electric field was 13.5 meV, and its lateral size was about 10 μm. It is shown that, in the traps prepared in this way, photoexcited interwell excitons behave with increasing concentration at sufficiently low temperatures (T=2K) in the same fashion as in the lateral traps caused by large-scale fluctuations of the random potential. At concentrations exceeding the percolation threshold, the interwell excitons condense into the lowest energy state in the trap.     

Self-induced zeeman coherences in a Paul trap

A new method for the measurement of motional frequencies and amplitudes of stored ions in a radio-frequency trap is presented. Ions oscillating in the trap potential and additionally subjected to a small magnetic field, undergo sublevel transitions between adjacent Zeeman states when their motional frequency is identical with the Larmor frequency in the applied magnetic field. These transitions can be sensitively detected by means of an optical pumping scheme. As they are related to a coherent superposition of adjacent states and originate from the inherent motion of the ions in a slightly inhomogeneous magnetic field, this phenomenon is termed self-induced Zeeman coherence.     

Non-cyclic phases for neutrino oscillations in quantum field theory

We show the presence of non-cyclic phases for oscillating neutrinos in the context of quantum field theory. Such phases carry information about the non-perturbative vacuum structure associated with the field mixing. By subtracting the condensate contribution of the flavor vacuum, the previously studied quantum mechanics geometric phase is recovered.     

Directly Trapping Atoms in a U-Shaped Magneto-Optical Trap Using a Mini Atom Chip

We experimentally demonstrate the trapping of ^85Rb atoms directly on a chip-size U-shaped magneto-optical trap （U-MOT）. The trap includes a U-shaped wire on the chip, two bias magnetic field coils and laser beams. The capture volume of the U-MOT is theoretically calculated, and the trap is experimentally realized. With 2 A current applied to the U-shaped wire and 2-Gauss horizontal bias field, more than 2 × 10^6 atoms are trapped. In contrast with an ordinary mirror-MOT, this U-MOT captures atoms directly from the background, thus the trap size is greatly reduced. Based on this mini trap scheme, it is possible to realize a chip-size atom trap array for quantum information processing.     

Spin-polarized transport through a coupled double-dot

We investigate the quantum transport through a mesoscopic device consisting of an open, lateral double-quantum-dot coupled by time oscillating and spin-polarization dependent tunneling which results from a static magnetic field applied in the tunneling junction. In the presence of a non-vanishing bias voltage applied to two attached macroscopic leads both spin and charge currents are driven through the device. We demonstrate that the spin and charge currents are controllable by adjusting the gate voltage, the frequency of driving field and the magnitude of the magnetic field as well. An interesting resonance phenomenon is observed.     

Surface Planar Ion Chip for Linear Radio-Frequency Paul Traps

We propose a surface planar ion chip which forms a linear radio frequency Paul ion trap. The electrodes reside in the two planes of a chip, and the trap axis is located above the chip surface. Its electric field and potential distribution are similar to the standard linear radio frequency Paul ion trap. This ion trap geometry may be greatly meaningful for quantum information processing.     

Current control in periodically driven quantum dots using nonadiabatic double crossing

The purpose of this Letter is to propose a method for controlling electron currents on quantum dots driven by an oscillating electric field. The effects of nonadiabatic transition on time-averaged currents are theoretically studied in dot systems where energy levels exhibit a double crossing within one period of the driving field. The current is enhanced or suppressed as a result of the constructive or destructive interference between different transition paths at a double crossing. The current also depends on the number of dots because of the presence of dot-lead coupling.     

The influence of the electrode diameter on the diffraction effects in the ultrasonic field generated by an oscillating piezoelectric disk

The problem of ultrasound radiation by a finite-size source is considered. A boundary-value problem is formulated and solved for ultrasonic waves generated by an oscillating piezoelectric disk fixed along its edge and characterized by an eigenfrequency spectrum and a corresponding oscillation amplitude distribution. The influence of the size of electrodes on the diffraction effects arising in the ultrasonic field of the piezoelectric disk is theoretically investigated.     

Magnetic ratchet effects in a two-dimensional electron gas

The effect of the magnetic field on the generation of an electric current in a two-dimensional electronic ratchet is theoretically studied. Mechanisms of the formation of magnetically induced photocurrent are proposed for a structure with a two-dimensional electron gas (quantum well, graphene, or topological insulator) with a lateral asymmetric superlattice consisting of metallic strips on the external surface of the structure. The ratchet with the spatially oscillating magnetic field generated by the ferromagnetic lattice, as well as the nonmagnetic ratchet placed in the uniform magnetic field both classically weak and strong quantizing, is considered. It is established that the ratio of the amplitude of the magnetic oscillations of photocurrent to the ratchet photocurrent in zero field can exceed two orders of magnitude.     

Hydrogenic donor states in wurtzite InGaN/GaN coupled quantum dots

The binding energies of the hydrogenic impurity in wurtzite InGaN coupled quantum dots (QDs) are calculated by means of a variational method, considering the strong built-in electric field induced by the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations. Numerical results show that the strong built-in electric field induces an asymmetrical distribution of the donor binding energy with respect to the center of the coupled QDs. When the impurity is located in the center of the left dot, the donor binding energy is largest and insensitive to the barrier height of the wurtzite InGaN coupled QDs.     

Surface-electrode Rydberg-Stark decelerator

Hydrogen atoms in Rydberg states with principal quantum numbers between 23 and 70 have been accelerated, decelerated, and electrostatically trapped using a surface-electrode Rydberg-Stark decelerator. By applying a set of oscillating electrical potentials to a two-dimensional array of electrodes on a printed circuit board (PCB), a continuously moving, three-dimensional electric trap with a predefined velocity and acceleration is generated. From an initial longitudinal velocity of 760 m/s, final velocities of the Rydberg atoms ranging from 1200 m/s to zero velocity in the laboratory-fixed frame of reference were achieved. Accelerated or decelerated atoms were detected directly by pulsed electric-field ionization. Atoms trapped at zero mean velocity above the PCB were reaccelerated off the PCB before field ionization.     

Cubic algebra and averaged Hamiltonian for the resonance 3: (?1) Penning-ioffe trap

For the 3: (?1) resonance Penning trap, we describe the algebra of symmetries which turns out to be a non-Lie algebra with cubic commutation relations. The irreducible representations and coherent states of this algebra are constructed explicitly. The perturbing inhomogeneous magnetic field of Ioffe type, after double quantum averaging, generates an effective Hamiltonian of the trap. In the irreducible representation, this Hamiltonian becomes a second-order ordinary differential operator of the Heun type.     

H-Theorem in an Isolated Quantum Harmonic Oscillator

We consider the H-theorem in an isolated quantum harmonic oscillator through the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The effect of potential in producing entropy is investigated in detail, and we found that including a barrier potential into a harmonic trap would lead to the thermalization of the system, while a harmonic trap alone would not thermalize the system. During thermalization, Shannon entropy increases, which shows that a microscopic quantum system still obeys the macroscopic thermodynamics law. Meanwhile, initial coherent mechanical energy transforms to incoherent thermal energy during thermalization, which exhibiting the decoherence of an oscillating wave packet featured by a large decreasing of autocorrelation length. When reaching thermal equilibrium, the wave packet comes to a halt, with the density distributions both in position and momentum spaces well-fitted by a microcanonical ensemble of statistical mechanics.     

Trapping and cooling a mirror to its quantum mechanical ground state

We propose a technique aimed at cooling a harmonically oscillating mirror to its quantum mechanical ground state starting from room temperature. Our method, which involves the two-sided irradiation of the vibrating mirror inside an optical cavity, combines several advantages over the two-mirror arrangements being used currently. For comparable parameters the three-mirror configuration provides a stiffer trap for the oscillating mirror. Furthermore, it prevents bistability from limiting the use of higher laser powers for mirror trapping, and also partially does so for mirror cooling. Lastly, it improves the isolation of the mirror from classical noise so that the quantum mechanical dynamics of the mirror become easier to observe. These improvements are expected to bring the task of achieving and detecting ground state occupation for the mirror closer to completion.     

Diffraction effects in the ultrasonic field generated by an oscillating piezoelectric disk fixed along the edge

The diffracted field of an oscillating piezoelectric disk fixed along the edge is calculated with consideration for the spectrum of the disk’s eigenfrequencies and the corresponding oscillation amplitude distribution. The diffraction corrections are calculated as functions of the system parameters, including the Q-factor of the piezoelectric plate and the frequency of radiation.     

Transport of a quantum degenerate heteronuclear Bose-Fermi mixture in a harmonic trap

We report on the simultaneous transport of mixed quantum degenerate gases of bosonic ⁸⁷Rb and fermionic ⁴⁰ K in a harmonic potential. The samples are transported over a distance of to the geometric center of a Ioffe-Pritchard type magnetic trap. This transport mechanism was implemented by modification of the QUIC trap and is free of losses and heating. It significantly extends the capabilities of this trap design. We demonstrate a launching mechanism for quantum degenerate samples and show that highly homogeneous magnetic fields can be created in the center of the QUIC trap. The transport mechanism may also be cascaded to cover even larger distances for interferometric experiments with quantum degenerate samples.     

Dynamics of Hysteresis for a Bose–Einstein Condensate Soliton in a Dynamic Trap

The dynamics of the fundamental soliton of Bose–Einstein atomic condensate is analytically and numerically examined and compared in two schemes: (i) a magnetic or an optical trap with oscillating walls and (ii) a single oscillating atomic mirror in a homogeneous gravitational field. It is demonstrated that the dependence of the degree of excitation of the soliton motion on the rate of scanning of the instantaneous oscillation frequency has a band structure.     

Fractional quantum Hall states of atoms in optical lattices

We describe a method to create fractional quantum Hall states of atoms confined in optical lattices. We show that the dynamics of the atoms in the lattice is analogous to the motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field if an oscillating quadrupole potential is applied together with a periodic modulation of the tunneling between lattice sites. In a suitable parameter regime the ground state in the lattice is of the fractional quantum Hall type, and we show how these states can be reached by melting a Mott-insulator state in a superlattice potential. Finally, we discuss techniques to observe these strongly correlated states.