Chaotic scattering and transmission fluctuations

We discuss the phenomenon of chaotic scattering and its application in the study of transmission of electrons in mesoscopic devices as well as the transmission of microwaves through junctions. We show that the fact that the ray optics (classical dynamics) is chaotic, implies fluctuations in the observed transmission coefficients, whose statistics is determined by the theory of random matrices. We also show how the classical distribution functions which reflect the chaotic nature of the classical dynamics, determine the dependence of the correlations observed in the fluctuating transmission coefficients on external parameters. The time domain properties of chaotic scattering systems are also examined, and are shown to depend on the chaotic nature of the classical dynamics, together with a wave mechanical enhancement in time reversal invariant systems. Finally, we study the role of absorption and discuss its effects on the transmission fluctuations and their statistics.     

The quantum acousto-optic effect in Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate the interaction between a single mode light field and an elongated cigar shaped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), subject to a temporal modulation of the trap frequency in the tight confinement direction. Under appropriate conditions, the longitudinal sound like waves (Faraday waves) in the direction of weak confinement acts as a dynamic diffraction grating for the incident light field analogous to the acousto-optic effect in classical optics. The change in the refractive index due to the periodic modulation of the BEC density is responsible for the acousto-optic effect. The dynamics is characterised by Bragg scattering of light from the matter wave Faraday grating and simultaneous Bragg scattering of the condensate atoms from the optical grating formed due to the interference between the incident light and the diffracted light fields. Varying the intensity of the incident laser beam we observe the transition from the acousto-optic effect regime to the atomic Bragg scattering regime, where Rabi oscillations between two momentum levels of the atoms are observed. We show that the acousto-optic effect is reduced as the atomic interaction is increased.     

Shot noise in ballistic quantum dots with a mixed classical phase space

We investigate shot noise for quantum dots whose classical phase space consists of both regular and chaotic regions. The noise is systematically suppressed below the universal value of fully chaotic systems, by an amount which varies with the positions of the leads. We analyze the dynamical origin of this effect by a novel way to incorporate diffractive impurity scattering. The dependence of the shot noise on the scattering rate shows that the suppression arises due to the deterministic nature of transport through regular regions and along short chaotic trajectories. Shot noise can be used to probe phase-space structures of quantum dots with generic classical dynamics.     

Atoms in double-delta-kicked periodic potentials: chaos with long-range correlations

We report an experimental and theoretical study of the dynamics of cold atoms subjected to pairs of closely spaced pulses in an optical lattice. For all previously studied delta-kicked systems, chaotic classical dynamics shows diffusion with short-time (2- or 3-kick) correlations; here, chaotic diffusion combines with new types of long-ranged global correlations, between all kick pairs, which control transport through trapping regions in phase space. Correlations are studied in the classical regime, but the diffusive behavior observed in experiment depends on the quantum dynamical localization.     

Underlying dynamics of the pedestal components in a modulated laser diode with noise

We demonstrate that the pedestal components observed in the power spectra of a directly modulated laser diode, which were interpreted as a sign of instability of the periodic regime, are an indication of the coexistence of a chaotic regime with the periodic one. We present the underlying dynamics behind the rise of these pedestals, showing two different situations in which the pedestals appear. In both, a periodic regime coexists with another attractor, a saddle cycle in one case and a chaotic attractor in the other. The random fluctuations included in the laser diode model allow the coexisting attractors to merge in the observed behavior of the laser.     

Quantum chaotic scattering with a mixed phase space: the three-disk billiard in a magnetic field

We study the classical and semiclassical scattering behavior of electrons in an open three-disk billard in the presence of a homogeneous magnetic field, which is confined to the inner part of the scattering region. As the magnetic field is increased the phase space of the invariant set of the classical scattering trajectories changes from hyperbolic (fully chaotic) to a mixed situation, where KAM tori are present. The "stickiness" of the stable trajectories leads to a much slower decay of the survival probability of trajectories as compared to the hyperbolic case. We show that this effect influences strongly the quantum fluctuations of the scattering amplitude and cross sections.     

Classically induced suppression of energy growth in a chaotic quantum system

Recent experiments with Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC) in traps and speckle potentials have explored the dynamical regime in which the evolving BEC clouds localize due to the influence of classical dynamics. The growth of their mean energy is effectively arrested. This is in contrast with the well-known localization phenomena that originate due to quantum interferences. We show that classically induced localization can also be obtained in a classically chaotic, non-interacting system. In this work, we study the classical and quantum dynamics of non-interacting particles in a double-barrier structure. This is essentially a non-KAM system and, depending on the parameters, can display chaotic dynamics inside the finite well between the barriers. However, for the same set of parameters, it can display nearly regular dynamics above the barriers. We exploit this combination of two qualitatively different classical dynamical features to obtain saturation of energy growth. In the semiclassical regime, this classical mechanism strongly influences the quantum behaviour of the system.     

Breakdown of universality in quantum chaotic transport: the two-phase dynamical fluid model

We investigate the transport properties of open quantum chaotic systems in the semiclassical limit. We show how the transmission spectrum, the conductance fluctuations, and their correlations are influenced by the underlying chaotic classical dynamics, and result from the separation of the quantum phase space into a stochastic and a deterministic phase. Consequently, sample-to-sample conductance fluctuations lose their universality, while the persistence of a finite stochastic phase protects the universality of conductance fluctuations under variation of a quantum parameter.     

Quantum-chaotic scattering effects in semiconductor microstructures

We show that classical chaotic scattering has experimentally measurable consequences for the quantum conductance of semiconductor microstructures. These include the existence of conductance fluctuations-a sensitivity of the conductance to either Fermi energy or magnetic field-and weak-localization-a change in the average conductance upon applying a magnetic field. We develop a semiclassical theory and present numerical results for these two effects in which we model the microstructures by billiards attached to leads. We find that the difference between chaotic and regular classical scattering produces a qualitative difference in the fluctuation spectrum and weak-localization lineshape of chaotic and nonchaotic structures. While the semiclassical theory within the diagonal approximation accounts well for the weak-localization lineshape and for the spectrum of the fluctuations, we uncover a surprising failure of the semiclassical diagonal-approximation theory in describing the magnitude of these quantum transport effects.     

Nonlinear coherent dynamics of an atom in an optical lattice

We consider a simple model of the lossless interaction between a two-level single atom and a standing-wave single-mode laser field which creates a one-dimensional optical lattice. The internal dynamics of the atom is governed by the laser field, which is treated as classical with a large number of photons. The center-of-mass classical atomic motion is governed by the optical potential and the internal atomic degrees of freedom. The resulting Hamilton-Schrö dinger equations of motion are a five-dimensional nonlinear dynamical system with two integrals of motion, and the total atomic energy and the Bloch vector length are conserved during the interaction. In our previous papers, the motion of the atom has been shown to be regular or chaotic (in the sense of exponential sensitivity to small variations of the initial conditions and/or the system’s control parameters) depending on the values of the control parameters, atom-field detuning, and recoil frequency. At the exact atom-field resonance, the exact solutions for both the external and internal atomic degrees of freedom can be derived. The center-of-mass motion does not depend in this case on the internal variables, whereas the Rabi oscillations of the atomic inversion is a frequency-modulated signal with the frequency defined by the atomic position in the optical lattice. We study analytically the correlations between the Rabi oscillations and the center-of-mass motion in two limiting cases of a regular motion out of the resonance: (1) far-detuned atoms and (2) rapidly moving atoms. This paper is concentrated on chaotic atomic motion that may be quantified strictly by positive values of the maximal Lyapunov exponent. It is shown that an atom, depending on the value of its total energy, can either oscillate chaotically in a well of the optical potential, or fly ballistically with weak chaotic oscillations of its momentum, or wander in the optical lattice, changing the direction of motion in a chaotic way. In the regime of chaotic wandering, the atomic motion is shown to have fractal properties. We find a useful tool to visualize complicated atomic motion-Poincaré mapping of atomic trajectories in an effective three-dimensional phase space onto planes of atomic internal variables and momentum. The Poincaré mappings are constructed using the translational invariance of the standing laser wave. We find common features with typical nonhyperbolic Hamiltonian systems-chains of resonant islands of different sizes imbedded in a stochastic sea, stochastic layers, bifurcations, and so on. The phenomenon of the atomic trajectories sticking to boundaries of regular islands, which should have a great influence on atomic transport in optical lattices, is found and demonstrated numerically.     

Chaotic transport and current reversal in deterministic ratchets

We address the problem of the classical deterministic dynamics of a particle in a periodic asymmetric potential of the ratchet type. We take into account the inertial term in order to understand the role of the chaotic dynamics in the transport properties. By a comparison between the bifurcation diagram and the current, we identify the origin of the current reversal as a bifurcation from a chaotic to a periodic regime. Close to this bifurcation, we observed trajectories revealing intermittent chaos and anomalous deterministic diffusion.     

Quantum transport and classical dynamics in open billiards

We report numerical results of an investigation of quantum transport for a weakly opened integrable circle and chaotic stadium billiards with a pair of conducting leads. While the statistics of spacings of resonance energies commonly follow the Wigner (GOE)-like distribution, the electric conductance as a function of the Fermi wavenumber shows characteristic noisy fluctuations associated with a typical set of classical orbits unique for both billiards. The wavenumber autocorrelation for the conductance is stronger in the stadium than the circle billiard, which we show is related to the length spectrum of classical short orbits. We propose an explanation of these contrasts in terms of the effect of phase decoherence due to the underlying chaotic dynamics.     

Dynamics and entanglement of a membrane-in-the-middle optomechanical system in the extremely-large-amplitude regime

The study of optomechanical systems has attracted much attention, most of which are concentrated in the physics in the smallamplitude regime. While in this article, we focus on optomechanics in the extremely-large-amplitude regime and consider both classical and quantum dynamics. Firstly, we study classical dynamics in a membrane-in-the-middle optomechanical system in which a partially reflecting and flexible membrane is suspended inside an optical cavity. We show that the membrane can present self-sustained oscillations with limit cycles in the shape of sawtooth-edged ellipses and exhibit dynamical multistability. Then, we study the dynamics of the quantum fluctuations around the classical orbits. By using the logarithmic negativity, we calculate the evolution of the quantum entanglement between the optical cavity mode and the membrane during the mechanical oscillation. We show that there is some synchronism between the classical dynamical process and the evolution of the quantum entanglement.     

Experimental verification of fidelity decay: from perturbative to fermi golden rule regime

The scattering matrix was measured for a flat microwave cavity with classically chaotic dynamics. The system can be perturbed by small changes of the geometry. We define the "scattering fidelity" in terms of parametric correlation functions of scattering matrix elements. In chaotic systems and for weak coupling, the scattering fidelity approaches the fidelity of the closed system. Without free parameters, the experimental results agree with random matrix theory in a wide range of perturbation strengths, reaching from the perturbative to the Fermi golden rule regime.     

Quantum-to-classical crossover in full counting statistics

The reduction of quantum scattering leads to the suppression of shot noise. In this Letter, we analyze the crossover from the quantum transport regime with universal shot noise to the classical regime where noise vanishes. By making use of the stochastic path integral approach, we find the statistics of transport and the transmission properties of a chaotic cavity as a function of a system parameter controlling the crossover. We identify three different scenarios of the crossover.     

Lyapunov generation of entanglement and the correspondence principle

We show how a classically vanishing interaction generates entanglement between two initially nonentangled particles, without affecting their classical dynamics. For chaotic dynamics, the rate of entanglement is shown to saturate at the Lyapunov exponent of the classical dynamics as the interaction strength increases. In the saturation regime, the one-particle Wigner function follows classical dynamics better and better as one goes deeper and deeper in the semiclassical limit. This demonstrates that quantum-classical correspondence at the microscopic level does not require coupling to a large number of external degrees of freedom.     

Level Dynamics and Universality of Spectral Fluctuations

The spectral fluctuations of quantum (or wave) systems with a chaotic classical (or ray) limit are mostly universal and faithful to random-matrix theory. Taking up ideas of Pechukas and Yukawa we show that equilibrium statistical mechanics for the fictitious gas of particles associated with the parametric motion of levels yields spectral fluctuations of the random-matrix type. Previously known clues to that goal are an appropriate equilibrium ensemble and a certain ergodicity of level dynamics. We here complete the reasoning by establishing a power law for the dependence of the mean parametric separation of avoided level crossings. Due to that law universal spectral fluctuations emerge as average behavior of a family of quantum dynamics drawn from a control parameter interval which becomes vanishingly small in the classical limit; the family thus corresponds to a single classical system. We also argue that classically integrable dynamics cannot produce universal spectral fluctuations since their level dynamics resembles a nearly ideal Pechukas–Yukawa gas.     

Optically guided beam splitter for propagating matter waves

We study experimentally and theoretically a beam splitter setup for guided atomic matter waves. The matter wave is a guided atom laser that can be tuned from quasimonomode to a regime where many transverse modes are populated, and propagates in a horizontal dipole beam until it crosses another horizontal beam at 45°. We show that depending on the parameters of this X configuration, the atoms can all end up in one of the two beams (the system behaves as a perfect guide switch), or be split between the four available channels (the system behaves as a beam splitter). The splitting regime results from a chaotic scattering dynamics. The existence of these different regimes turns out to be robust against small variations of the parameters of the system. From numerical studies, we also propose a scheme that provides a robust and controlled beam splitter in two channels only.