Rabi oscillations in two-level semiconductor systems

Rabi oscillations in coherent optical excitations in bulk GaAs and quantum dot two-level systems may be converted into deterministic photocurrents, with the impurities or dots providing the tag for each qubit. Here we perform a theoretical analysis of the damping of Rabi oscillations in two-level semiconductor systems. Present calculations, through optical Bloch equations on excitonic two-level In_xGa_1−xAs quantum-dot systems, are found in good agreement with the corresponding experimental data. Calculated results indicate that the nature underlying the dephasing mechanism associated to the damping of the measured Rabi oscillations, which has previously remained as an open question, may be associated with a field-dependent recombination rate related to the inhomogeneous broadening of the excitonic lines in the In_xGa_1−xAs two-level QD system.     

Phonon-assisted damping of Rabi oscillations in semiconductor quantum dots

Electron-phonon interaction is a major source of optical dephasing in semiconductor quantum dots. Within a density matrix theory the electron-phonon interaction is considered up to the second order of a correlation expansion, allowing the calculation of the quantum kinetic dephasing dynamics of optically induced nonlinearities in GaAs quantum dots for arbitrary pulse strengths and shapes. We find Rabi oscillations renormalized and a damping that depends on the input pulse strength, a behavior not known from exponential dephasing mechanisms.     

Decrease in the damping rate of Rabi oscillations of artificial atoms at nonresonant excitation

A decrease in the damping rate of Rabi oscillations with an increase in the detuning of the frequency of exciting radiation from the resonance frequency of a two-level quantum system has been explained. This effect is implemented when the rate of the pure dephasing of the quantum system is lower than the longitudinal relaxation rate. It can be observed, e.g., for artificial atoms such as semiconductor quantum dots for which pure dephasing processes are almost absent.     

Anharmonic lattice dynamics in germanium measured with ultrafast x-ray diffraction

Damping of impulsively generated coherent acoustic oscillations in a femtosecond laser-heated thin germanium film is measured as a function of fluence by means of ultrafast x-ray diffraction. By simultaneously measuring picosecond strain dynamics in the film and in the unexcited silicon substrate, we separate anharmonic damping from acoustic transmission through the buried interface. The measured damping rate and its dependence on the calculated temperature of the thermal bath is consistent with estimated four-body, elastic dephasing times (T2) for 7-GHz longitudinal acoustic phonons in germanium.     

Detuning-dependent narrowing of Mollow triplet lines of driven quantum dots

We study the two-time correlation function and the resonance fluorescence spectrum of a semi-conductor quantum dot excited by a strong off-resonant laser pulse. The obtained analytic expressions exhibit a specific detuning-dependent damping of Rabi oscillations of the dressed quantum dot as well as a detuning-dependent width of Mollow triplet lines. In the absence of pure dephasing, the central peak of the triplet is broadened upon increasing detuning, but the blue- and red-side peaks are narrowed. We demonstrate that the pure dephasing processes can invert these dependences. A crossover between the regimes of detuning-dependent narrowing and broadening of the side and central peaks is identified. The predicted effects are consistent with recent experimental results and numerical calculations.     

Drastic reduction of plasmon damping in gold nanorods

The dephasing of particle plasmons is investigated using light-scattering spectroscopy on individual gold nanoparticles. We find a drastic reduction of the plasmon dephasing rate in nanorods as compared to small nanospheres due to a suppression of interband damping. The rods studied here also show very little radiation damping, due to their small volumes. These findings imply large local-field enhancement factors and relatively high light-scattering efficiencies, making metal nanorods extremely interesting for optical applications. Comparison with theory shows that pure dephasing and interface damping give negligible contributions to the total plasmon dephasing rate.     

Geometric phase of an open double-quantum-dot system detected by a quantum point contact

We study theoretically the geometric phase of a double-quantum-dot(DQD) system measured by a quantum point contact(QPC) in the pure dephasing and dissipative environments, respectively. The results show that in these two environments, the coupling strength between the quantum dots has an enhanced impact on the geometric phase during a quasiperiod. This is due to the fact that the expansion of the width of the tunneling channel connecting the two quantum dots accelerates the oscillations of the electron between the quantum dots and makes the length of the evolution path longer.In addition, there is a notable near-zero region in the geometric phase because the stronger coupling between the system and the QPC freezes the electron in one quantum dot and the solid angle enclosed by the evolution path is approximately zero,which is associated with the quantum Zeno effect. For the pure dephasing environment, the geometric phase is suppressed as the dephasing rate increases which is caused only by the phase damping of the system. In the dissipative environment,the geometric phase is reduced with the increase of the relaxation rate which results from both the energy dissipation and phase damping of the system. Our results are helpful for using the geometric phase to construct the fault-tolerant quantum devices based on quantum dot systems in quantum information.     

Coherent control and polarization readout of individual excitonic states

We present measurements and simulations of coherent control and readout of the polarization in individual exciton states. The readout is accomplished by transient four-wave mixing detected by heterodyne spectral interferometry. We observe Rabi oscillations in the polarization, which show half the period of the Rabi oscillations in the population. A decrease of the oscillation amplitude with pulse area is observed, which is not accompanied by a change in the dephasing time. This suggests the transfer of the excitation to other states as the origin of the Rabi-oscillation damping. Detuning of the excitation enables the control of the polarization in phase and amplitude and is in qualitative agreement with simulations for a two-level system. Additionally, simultaneous Rabi flopping of several spatially and energetically close exciton states is demonstrated.     

Irreversibility of a quantum walk induced by controllable decoherence employing random unitary operations

Quantum walk is different from random walk in reversibility and interference. Observation of the reduced re- versibility in a realistic quantum walk is of scientific interest in understanding the unique quantum behavior. We propose an idea to experimentally investigate the decoherence-induced irreversibility of quantum walks with trapped ions in phase space via the average fidelity decay. By introducing two controllable decoherence sources, i.e., the phase damping channel (i.e., dephasing) and the high temperature amplitude reservoir (i.e., dissipation), in the intervals between the steps of quantum walk, we find that the high temperature amplitude reservoir shows more detrimental effects than the phase damping channel on quantum walks. Our study also shows that the average fidelity decay works better than the position variance for characterizing the transition from quantum walks to random walk. Experimental feasibility to monitor the irreversibility is justified using currently available techniques.     

Coherence times and Rabi oscillations in CaWO₄:Cr(5+) crystal

The coherence times of dopant pentavalent chromium ions in CaWO? single crystal (0.0006at.% Cr(5+)) were investigated both theoretically and experimentally. Temperature dependences of spin-lattice relaxation time T? and phase memory time T(M) were measured in the temperature range 6-30 K at high (94 GHz, W band) and low (3.5 GHz, S band) frequencies of electron spin resonance. It follows from T(M) calculations that phase relaxation of Cr(5+) ion arises mainly from magnetic dipole interactions between the chromium ions. Anomalously fast damping of Rabi oscillations is detected in both S- and W-band experiments. It is shown that this phenomenon is caused by microwave field inhomogeneity inside the resonator. Relations between the damping time of Rabi oscillations, Rabi frequency and the crystal sample size are obtained. Lumped-element resonators and smaller sample dimensions are suggested to lower spin dephasing during transient nutations.     

Wave attenuation model for dephasing and measurement of conditional times

Inelastic scattering induces dephasing in mesoscopic systems. An analysis of previous models to simulate inelastic scattering in such systems is presented and a relatively new model based on wave attenuation is introduced. The problem of Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations in conductance of a mesoscopic ring is studied. We show that the conductance is symmetric under flux reversal and the visibility of AB oscillations decays to zero as a function of the incoherence parameter, signaling dephasing. Further the wave attenuation model is applied to a fundamental problem in quantum mechanics, that of the conditional (reflection/transmission) times spent in a given region of space by a quantum particle before scattering off from that region.     

Optical Bloch Equations Modified with Phonon-Induced Intensity-Dependent Dephasing

We extend the exciton population equations of a two-level quantum dot system with weak excitation to the ones with strong excitations, in which, the phonon-induced intensity-dependent dephasing time and decay rate are involved. The straightforward calculated populations from the modified population equations demonstrate the damping behavior of Rabi oscillation as the external field increasing. The effect of the intensity-dependent dephasing time and the intensity-dependent decay rate are also discussed.     

Optical Bloch Equations Modified with Phonon-Induced Intensity-Dependent Dephasing

We extend the exciton population equations of a two-level quantum dot system with weak excitation to the ones with strong excitations, in which, the phonon-induced intensity-dependent dephasing time and decay rate are involved. The straightforward calculated populations from the modified population equations demonstrate the damping behavior of Rabi oscillation as the external field increasing. The effect of the intensity-dependent dephasing time and the intensity-dependent decay rate are also discussed.     

Transport characteristics of Rabi oscillations in the two-band superlattices

We investigated the transport characteristics of Rabi oscillations, by using numerical methods, within a two-band tight-binding model driven by dc－ac electric fields. We found that Rabi oscillations make the long-time average current a sharply change, i.e. the current have resonant peaks appearing. Rabi oscillations are destroyed by dephasing; these peaks are the signatures of Rabi oscillations on the current response. The strong interband coupling will change the conditions of Rabi oscillations and, correspondingly, changes the places where the current resonant peaks appear.     

Non-markovian dynamics of spectral narrowing for excitons in the layered semiconductor GaSe observed using optical four-wave mixing spectroscopy

We have investigated non-markovian dephasing by using time-resolved and spectrally resolved four-wave mixing measurements in a layered semiconductor GaSe. When the time interval between the first and second excitation pulses is increased, photon echo spectra exhibit narrowing only in a regime of a few picoseconds. In the initial dephasing of these signals, fast damping is observed. The narrowing of the spectrally resolved signal is consistent with the Fourier transformation of the time-resolved signals. Spectral narrowing is crucial evidence of the transition from non-markovian to markovian dynamics. By comparing experimental data with calculation results based on the non-markovian theory, we have found that the correlation time of the exciton-phonon interaction is 1.1 ps.     

Ultrafast dephasing of surface plasmon excitation in silver nanoparticles: influence of particle size,shape, and chemical surrounding

By combination of two special methods, i.e., persistent spectral hole burning and laser assisted nanoparticle preparation, the dephasing time T2 of surface plasmon excitation in silver nanoparticles was systematically investigated. A strong dependence of T2 on the plasmon energy is found which reflects the relevance of interband damping and makes necessary a precise control of the particle shape when measuring T2. The influence of the reduced dimension on the dephasing dynamics was observed as a decrease of T2 with shrinking particle size. In addition, for silver nanoparticles on quartz substrates, a considerable amount of chemical interface damping was observed.     

Effect of exchange interaction on spin dephasing in a double quantum dot

We measure singlet-triplet dephasing in a two-electron double quantum dot in the presence of an exchange interaction which can be electrically tuned from much smaller to much larger than the hyperfine energy. Saturation of dephasing and damped oscillations of the spin correlator as a function of time are observed when the two interaction strengths are comparable. Both features of the data are compared with predictions from a quasistatic model of the hyperfine field.     

Damping of electron Zitterbewegung in carbon nanotubes

Zitterbewegung (ZB, trembling motion) of electrons in semiconductor carbon nanotubes is described taking into account dephasing processes. The density matrix formalism is used for the theory. Differences between decay of ZB oscillations due to electron localization and that due to dephasing are discussed.     

Optical investigation of bloch oscillations in semiconductor superlattices

We investigate the dephasing dynamics in semiconductor superlattices using time-resolved four-wave mixing. The signals show a periodic modulation which can be related to Bloch oscillations in the superlattice miniband. The oscillation frequency is strongly dependent on the applied field, in agreement with theoretical expectation. At high fields, the dephasing times become very short due to field-induced scattering.     

Nonlocal advantage of quantum coherence in a dephasing channel with memory

We investigate nonlocal advantage of quantum coherence(NAQC)in a correlated dephasing channel modeled by themultimode bosonic reservoir.We obtain analytically the dephasing and memory factors of this channel for the reservoirhaving a Lorentzian spectral density,and analyze how they affect the NAQC defined by the l1 norm and relative entropy.It is shown that the memory effects of this channel on NAQC are state-dependent,and they suppress noticeably the rapiddecay of NAQC for the family of input Bell-like states with one excitation.For the given transmission time of each qubit,we also obtain the regions of the dephasing and memory factors during which there is NAQC in the output states.