Localization of a macroscopic object induced by the factorization of internal adiabatic motion

To account for the phenomenon of quantum decoherence of a macroscopic object, such as the localization and disappearance of interference, we invoke the adiabatic quantum entanglement between its collective states (such as that of the center-of-mass (CM)) and its inner states based on our recent investigation. Under the adiabatic limit where motion of the CM does not excite the transition of inner states, it is shown that the wave function of the macroscopic object can be written as an entangled state with correlation between adiabatic inner states and quasi-classical motion configurations of the CM. Since the adiabatic inner states are factorized with respect to each component of the macroscopic object, this adiabatic separation can induce the quantum decoherence. This observation thus provides us with a possible solution to the Schr?dinger cat paradox. Received 24 October 2000 and Received in final form 8 March 2001     

Orienting molecules using half-cycle pulses

Using a rigid-rotor model, we study the orientation dynamics of polar diatomic molecules excited by experimentally available half-cycle pulses. The results of the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schr?dinger equation are compared to those of an approximate “sudden-impact” impulsive model neglecting the molecular rotation during the pulse. We show that efficient orientation is achieved during time periods of several picoseconds for LiCl. For short pulses, where the kicked molecule model is valid, orientation turns out to be mainly sensitive to the time-integrated field amplitude and not the shape or rise time of the pulse. Received 16 August 2000 and Received in final form 4 December 2000     

ac Stark effect for a two-level atom in a squeezed vacuum via a two-photon process

The nondegenerate two-photon interaction of a two-level atom with a broadband multimode squeezed vacuum is investigated. We find that in the two-photon process the squeezed vacuum has a driving effect on the atom which can lead to an ac Stark effect when the average photon number of the squeezed vacuum is larger than a critical value. Received: 2 February 1999 / Received in final form: 20 April 1999     

Coherent population transfer in NO with pulsed lasers: the consequences of hyperfine structure, doppler broadening aaand electromagnetically induced absorption

Coherent population transfer between vibrational levels of the NO molecule induced by the interaction of two delayed laser pulses, also referred to as stimulated Raman scattering involving adiabatic passage (STIRAP), is studied experimentally in a molecular beam and in the bulk. The consequences of hyperfine splitting and Doppler broadening are discussed in detail. Unlike in previous studies of this kind, transfer occurs simultaneously between more than one group of non degenerate levels. In a molecular beam or in the bulk, the transfer efficiency of STIRAP exceeds that obtained by Stimulated Emission Pumping (SEP) by a factor of 3.6 or 15, respectively. We estimate the absolute transfer efficiency T in the beam to be , while is found in the bulk. In both cases, this is of the maximum value expected from numerical studies. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. Finally we show that the absorption of a pump pulse in a weakly absorbing medium is significantly enhanced by the presence of a copropagating Stokes pulse when the Rabi frequency of the latter is smaller than the width of the Doppler profile . The relation of this observation to the phenomenon of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT), which is observed for , is also discussed. Received: 11 September 1997 / Revised: 28 October 1997 / Accepted: 29 October 1997     

Basis-dependent dynamics of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates and analogies with semi-classical laser theory

We present a consistent second order perturbation theory for the lowest-lying condensed modes of very small, weakly-interacting Bose-Einstein condensates in terms of bare particle eigenstates in a harmonic trap. After presenting our general approach, we focus on explicit expressions for a simple three-level system, mainly in order to discuss the analogy of a single condensate occupying two modes of a trap with the semi-classical theory for two-mode photon lasers. A subsequent renormalization of the single-particle energies to include the dressing imposed by mean fields demonstrates clearly the consistency of our treatment with other kinetic approaches. Received 14 December 2001     

Jaynes-Cummings-model with damping at resonance

The time evolution of a damped two-level atom coupled to a damped field mode at resonance is calculated analytically as well as numerically in the basis of dressed states. We study the dynamics of the density matrix and of observables, e.g. the number of field quanta. For the initial states we consider the field to be in a Fock or Glauber state and the atom in the ground or excited state. We show the significant influence of the damping on the well-known phenomena of this model, e.g. collapse and revival. Received 22 January 2001 and Received in final form 16 May 2001     

Preparation and decoherence of superpositions of electromagnetic field states

In a recent experiment the progressive decoherence of a mesoscopic superposition of two coherent field states in a high-Q cavity, known as Schr?dinger cat state, has been measured for the first time [Brune et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4887 (1996)]. Here, the full master equation governing the coupled dissipative dynamics of the atom-field system studied in the experiment is formulated and solved numerically for the experimental parameters. The model simulated avoids the approximations underlying an analytically solvable model which is based on a harmonic expansion of the energies of the dressed atomic states and on a treatment of their dynamics within the adiabatic approximation. In particular, the numerical simulations reveal that the coupling of the cavity field mode to its environment causes important decoherence effects already during the initial preparation phase of the Schr?dinger cat state. This phenomenon is investigated in detail with the help of a measure for the purity of states. Moreover, the Hilbert-Schmidt distance of the intended target state, the Schr?dinger cat, to the state that is actually prepared in the experiment is determined. Received 13 September 2000 and Received in final form 22 December 2000     

Atomic coherent states studied by virtue of the EPR entangled state and their Wigner functions

Based on the newly constructed Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) entangled state representation we introduce macroscopic classical functions associated with atomic coherent state τ with angular momentum value j. These functions are proportional to the ordinary one-variable Hermite polynomials of order 2j. The corresponding Wigner quasiprobability function for τ in phase space is also derived which turns out to be a two-variable Hermite polynomial H _{2j, 2j}. In so doing, a new classical-quantum correspondence scheme for angular momentum system is established. Received 7 August 2002 / Received in final form 14 December 2002 Published online 24 April 2003 RID="a" ID="a"Work supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 10175057. RID="b" ID="b"e-mail: fhym@sjtu.edu.en     

Selecting molecules in the vibrational and rotational ground state by deflection

A beam of diatomic molecules scattered off a standing wave laser mode splits according to the rovibrational quantum state of the molecules. Our numerical calculation shows that single state resolution can be achieved by properly tuned, monochromatic light. The proposed scheme allows for selecting non-vibrating and non-rotating molecules from a thermal beam, implementing a laser Maxwell's demon to prepare a rovibrationally cold molecular ensemble. Received 23 August 2000 and Received in final form 17 November 2000     

A simple non-perturbative approach of atom ionisation by intense and ultra-short laser pulses

A simple theoretical approach based on Coulomb-Volkov states is introduced to predict ionisation of atoms by intense laser pulses in cases where the effective interaction time does not exceed one or two optical cycles [M. Nisoli et al., Opt. Lett. 22, 522 (1997)]. Under these conditions, the energy distributions of ejected electrons predicted by this non-perturbative approach are in very good agreement with “exact" results obtained by a full numerical treatment. The agreement is all the better that the principal quantum number of the initial state is high. For very strong fields, most electrons are ejected at an energy which is close to the classical kinetic energy that would be transferred to free electrons by the electromagnetic field during the pulse. The power of the present approach appears when keV. In this region, full numerical treatments become very lengthy and finally do not converge. However, the present Coulomb-Volkov theory still makes reliable predictions in very short computer times. Received 19 November 1999 and Received in final form 19 January 2000     

Proposal of an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experiment with molecules

Suppose that a pair of entities which have been generated jointly from a common source are separated by an experimental device so that they cannot interact any more. Then, strictly formulating within the framework of traditional quantum mechanics, the ensemble of all pairs may be represented by either a separable or a non-separable statistical operator. The former stands for the independence of the sub-ensembles whereas the latter admits correlations (EPR correlations) due to the presence of interference or cross terms. The second-order correlation function Δ, which is also amenable by experiment, adopts different values depending on the choice of the statistical operator. So, by performing an experiment of this kind with molecules, the question could be decided whether EPR correlations appear in the molecular domain too. A detailed elaboration of the following idea is presented: let an achiral precursor molecule M₂ dissociate so that two chiral fragments of different handedness are obtained. After separation R-M (L-M) interacts in a region of space A (B) with a photon I (II) in an already known linear polarization state. The enantiomeric correlation between the fragments is thereby conferred to the photons, and the corresponding changes of the polarization state are detected for different polarizer settings to finally yield Δ. Received 10 May 2000 and Received in final form 25 August 2000     

Adiabatic population transfer in multistate chains via dressed intermediate states

The well-known process of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) provides a robust technique for achieving complete population transfer between the first and last state of a three-state chain, with little population, even transiently, in the intermediate state. The extension of STIRAP to general N-state chainwise-linked systems continues to generate interest. Recently Malinovsky and Tannor (Phys. Rev. A 56, 4929 (1997)) have shown with numerical simulation that a resonant pulse sequence, which they term “straddle STIRAP”, can produce (under appropriate conditions, including specific pulse areas) complete population transfer with very little population in intermediate states. Their proposal supplements a pair of counterintuitively ordered delayed laser pulses, driving the first and last transition of the chain and corresponding to the pump and Stokes pulses in STIRAP, with one or more additional strong pulses of longer duration which couple the intermediate transition(s) and overlap both the pump and the Stokes pulses. In this paper, we modify the “straddling” Malinovsky-Tannor pulse sequence so that the intermediate couplings are constant (and strong), at least during the times when the pump and Stokes pulses are present, and the intermediate states therefore act as a strongly coupled subsystem with constant eigenvalues. Under this condition, we show that the original N-state chain is mathematically equivalent to a system comprising N-2 parallel -transitions, in which the initial state is coupled simultaneously to N-2 dressed intermediate states, which in turn are coupled to the final state. The population transfer is optimized by suitably tuning the pump and Stokes frequencies to resonance with one of these dressed intermediate states, which effectively acts as the single intermediate state in a three-state STIRAP-like process. We show that tuning to a dressed intermediate state turns the system (for both odd N and even N) into a three-state system - with all of the properties of conventional STIRAP (complete population transfer, little transient population in the intermediate states, insensitivity to variations in the laser parameters, such as pulse area). The success of the tuning-to-dressed-state idea is explained by using simple analytic approaches and illustrated with numerical simulations for four-, five-, six- and seven-state systems. Received: 17 April 1998 / Accepted: 15 June 1998     

Laser-induced fluorescence measurements of a 3 Π metastable carbon monoxide in a high enthalpy flow

Excitation of carbon monoxide molecules has been carried out in a cold cell and in a low-pressure plasma jet using an ArF narrow-band excimer laser. The different excitation models are discussed and the relevance of atomic carbon absorption into the laser cavities is pointed out. Excitation spectra of Cameron bands have been obtained in a room-temperature cell and compared with calculated spectra. A value of the constant σ related to the interaction strength between a ³ Π( v = 2) state and its neighbouring singlet states is derived: 0≤σ≤0.05. The fluorescence spectrum following broad band excitation of CO has been observed both in UV and visible. Similar experiments carried out in a high enthalpy flow have allowed to point out the presence of a ³ Π metastable carbon monoxide. A method for relative measurements of this species concentration is proposed. Received 9 April 2001 and Received in final form 13 June 2001     

Comprehensive experimental test of quantum erasure

In an interferometer, path information and interference visibility are incompatible quantities. Complete determination of the path will exclude any possibility of interference, rendering zero visibility. However, it is, under certain conditions, possible to trade the path information for improved (conditioned) visibility. This procedure is called quantum erasure. We have performed such experiments with polarization-entangled photon pairs. Using a partial polarizer, we could vary the degree of entanglement between the object and the probe. We could also vary the interferometer splitting ratio and thereby vary the a priori path predictability. This allowed us to test quantum erasure under a number of different experimental conditions. All experiments were in good agreement with theory. Received 15 July 2001 and Received in final form 30 November 2001     

Novel examples of cluster-matter produced by LUCAS, a new laser cluster source

In this paper a detailed experimental study of Coherent Population Trapping (CPT) effect on sodium induced by a dye-laser operating in a three-mode regime is presented and a detailed analysis of the role of velocity changing collisions is made. These collisions show a very small relaxation effect on the dark resonances which are visible even at high pressures. For the first time we demonstrate the persistence of the ground state coherence to pressures up to one atmosphere for a relatively “heavy” buffer gas like argon. The experimental results have been compared with theory and a very good agreement has been obtained. Preliminary results on the effect of Na-N₂ collisions on Coherent Population Trapping are presented. Received: 5 October 1998 / Received in final form: 3 December 1998     

Numerical simulation of spatial fluctuations in parametric image amplification

We study the properties of the spatial fluctuations in the far-field parametric fluorescence output of a type 1 degenerate traveling-wave parametric amplifier. Results of a semi-classical simulation are compared with experiments in a LBO crystal. This simulation is then used to predict amplified images of a continuous background, in a phase-sensitive as well as in a phase-insensitive configuration. Received 12 March 2001     

Correlation functions for a Bose-Einstein condensate in the Bogoliubov approximation

In this article we introduce a differential equation for the first order correlation function G ⁽¹⁾ of a Bose-Einstein condensate at T = 0. The Bogoliubov approximation is used. Our approach points out directly the dependence on the physical parameters. Furthermore it suggests a numerical method to calculate G ⁽¹⁾ without solving an eigenvector problem. The G ⁽¹⁾ equation is generalized to the case of non zero temperature. Received 20 September 2000     

Electron density changes and high harmonics generation in H2 molecule under intense laser fields

Under interaction with a high-intensity laser field, the real-time femtosecond dynamics of the electron density in the H₂ molecule has been studied quantum mechanically. For this purpose, a time-dependent generalized nonlinear Schr?dinger equation of motion, developed earlier in our laboratory by combining density functional theory and quantum fluid dynamics in real space, is solved numerically at the equilibrium internuclear distance of the molecule. By employing various time-dependent calculated properties as probes, information and insight are obtained about the phenomena of excitation, ionization, bond-softening, dipole formation and high-harmonics generation. The present approach goes beyond the linear response formalism.