Cascaded single-photon emission from the Mollow triplet sidebands of a quantum dot

A. Ulhaq, S. Weiler, S. M. Ulrich, R. Roßbach, M. Jetter & P. Michler

Emission from a resonantly excited quantum emitter is a fascinating research topic within the field of quantum optics and is a useful source for different types of quantum light fields. The resonance spectrum consists of a single spectral line that develops into a triplet above saturation of the quantum emitter. The three closely spaced photon channels from the resonance fluorescence have different photon statistical signatures. We present a detailed photon statistics analysis of the resonance fluorescence emission triplet from a solid-state-based artificial atom, that is, a semiconductor quantum dot. The photon correlation measurements demonstrate both ‘single’ and ‘cascaded’ photon emission from the Mollow triplet sidebands. The bright and narrow sideband emission (5.9 × 10⁶ photons per second into the first lens) can be conveniently frequency-tuned by laser detuning over 15 times its linewidth (Δv ≈ 1.0 GHz). These unique properties make the Mollow triplet sideband emission a valuable light source for quantum light spectroscopy and quantum information applications, for example.

**Groupmeeting by Amir Feizpour, Apr 11, 2012**

Spontaneous coherence in a cold exciton gas

A. A. High, J. R. Leonard, A. T. Hammack, M. M. Fogler, L. V. Butov, A. V. Kavokin, K. L. Campman & A. C. Gossard

If bosonic particles are cooled down below the temperature of quantum degeneracy, they can spontaneously form a coherent state in which individual matter waves synchronize and combine. Spontaneous coherence of matter waves forms the basis of a number of fundamental phenomena in physics, including superconductivity, superfluidity and Bose–Einstein condensation1, 2. Spontaneous coherence is the key characteristic of condensation in momentum space3. Excitons—bound pairs of electrons and holes—form a model system to explore the quantum physics of cold bosons in solids4, 5. Cold exciton gases can be realized in a system of indirect excitons, which can cool down below the temperature of quantum degeneracy owing to their long lifetimes6. Here we report measurements of spontaneous coherence in a gas of indirect excitons. We found that spontaneous coherence of excitons emerges in the region of the macroscopically ordered exciton state7 and in the region of vortices of linear polarization. The coherence length in these regions is much larger than in a classical gas, indicating a coherent state with a much narrower than classical exciton distribution in momentum space, characteristic of a condensate. A pattern of extended spontaneous coherence is correlated with a pattern of spontaneous polarization, revealing the properties of a multicomponent coherent state. We also observed phase singularities in the coherent exciton gas. All these phenomena emerge when the exciton gas is cooled below a few kelvin.

**Groupmeeting by Xingxing Xing, Apr 4, 2012**

Observation of Quantum Criticality with Ultracold Atoms in Optical Lattices

Xibo Zhang, Chen-Lung Hung, Shih-Kuang Tung, Cheng Chin

Quantum criticality emerges when a many-body system is in the proximity of a continuous phase transition that is driven by quantum fluctuations. In the quantum critical regime, exotic, yet universal properties are anticipated; ultracold atoms provide a clean system to test these predictions. We report the observation of quantum criticality with two-dimensional Bose gases in optical lattices. On the basis of in situ density measurements, we observe scaling behavior of the equation of state at low temperatures, locate the quantum critical point, and constrain the critical exponents. We observe a finite critical entropy per particle that carries a weak dependence on the atomic interaction strength. Our experiment provides a prototypical method to study quantum criticality with ultracold atoms.

**Groupmeeting by Dylan Jervis, Mar 28, 2012**

Adiabatic Passage with Spin Locking in Tm3+

María Florencia Pascual-Winter, Robert-Christopher Tongning, Romain Lauro, Anne Louchet-Chauvet, Thierry Chanelière, Jean-Louis Le Gouët

In low concentration Tm3+:YAG, we observe efficient adiabatic rapid passage (ARP) of thulium nuclear spin on very long time scales, with flipping time much longer than T2. Even with an optical oscillator strength as small as a few 10−8, optical preparation and detection enable us to work on a sample of about 1010 ions. The impurity-doped crystal strongly differs from monoatomic solids where efficient ARP at slow rate was observed in NMR early days. Explanation in terms of isoentropic reversible thermodynamic transformation does not apply in the present experiment. Instead, this feature can be understood as a spin locking effect.

**Groupmeeting by Chao Zhuang, Mar 21, 2012**

Dynamical Casmir Effect Using SQUIDS

C. M. Wilson, G. Johansson, A. Pourkabirian, M. Simoen, J. R. Johansson, T. Duty, F. Nori & P. Delsing

One of the most surprising predictions of modern quantum theory is that the vacuum of space is not empty. In fact, quantum theory predicts that it teems with virtual particles flitting in and out of existence. Although initially a curiosity, it was quickly realized that these vacuum fluctuations had measurable consequences—for instance, producing the Lamb shift¹ of atomic spectra and modifying the magnetic moment of the electron². This type of renormalization due to vacuum fluctuations is now central to our understanding of nature. However, these effects provide indirect evidence for the existence of vacuum fluctuations. From early on, it was discussed whether it might be possible to more directly observe the virtual particles that compose the quantum vacuum. Forty years ago, it was suggested³that a mirror undergoing relativistic motion could convert virtual photons into directly observable real photons. The phenomenon, later termed the dynamical Casimir effect^{4, 5}, has not been demonstrated previously. Here we observe the dynamical Casimir effect in a superconducting circuit consisting of a coplanar transmission line with a tunable electrical length. The rate of change of the electrical length can be made very fast (a substantial fraction of the speed of light) by modulating the inductance of a superconducting quantum interference device at high frequencies (>10 gigahertz). In addition to observing the creation of real photons, we detect two-mode squeezing in the emitted radiation, which is a signature of the quantum character of the generation process.

**Groupmeeting by Dylan Mahler, Mar 14, 2012**

Metastability and Coherence of Repulsive Polarons in a Strongly Interacting Fermi Mixture

Christoph Kohstall, Matteo Zaccanti, Michael Jag, Andreas Trenkwalder, Pietro Massignan, Georg M. Bruun, Florian Schreck, Rudolf Grimm

Ultracold Fermi gases with tuneable interactions represent a unique test bed to explore the many-body physics of strongly interacting quantum systems. In the past decade, experiments have investigated a wealth of intriguing phenomena, and precise measurements of ground-state properties have provided exquisite benchmarks for the development of elaborate theoretical descriptions. Metastable states in Fermi gases with strong repulsive interactions represent an exciting new frontier in the field. The realization of such systems constitutes a major challenge since a strong repulsive interaction in an atomic quantum gas implies the existence of a weakly bound molecular state, which makes the system intrinsically unstable against decay. Here, we exploit radio-frequency spectroscopy to measure the complete excitation spectrum of fermionic 40K impurities resonantly interacting with a Fermi sea of 6Li atoms. In particular, we show that a well-defined quasiparticle exists for strongly repulsive interactions. For this "repulsive polaron" we measure its energy and its lifetime against decay. We also probe its coherence properties by measuring the quasiparticle residue. The results are well described by a theoretical approach that takes into account the finite effective range of the interaction in our system. We find that a non-zero range of the order of the interparticle spacing results in a substantial lifetime increase. This major benefit for the stability of the repulsive branch opens up new perspectives for investigating novel phenomena in metastable, repulsively interacting fermion systems.

**Groupmeeting by Alma Bardon, Mar 7, 2012**

Relaxation Dynamics and Pre-thermalization in an Isolated Quantum System

Michael Gring, Maximilian Kuhnert, Tim Langen, Takuya Kitagawa, Bernhard Rauer, Matthias Schreitl, Igor Mazets, David A. Smith, Eugene Demler, Jörg Schmiedmayer

Understanding relaxation processes is an important unsolved problem in many areas of physics. A key challenge in studying such non-equilibrium dynamics is the scarcity of experimental tools for characterizing their complex transient states. We employ measurements of full quantum mechanical probability distributions of matter-wave interference to study the relaxation dynamics of a coherently split one-dimensional Bose gas and obtain unprecedented information about the dynamical states of the system. Following an initial rapid evolution, the full distributions reveal the approach towards a thermal-like steady state characterized by an effective temperature eight times lower than the initial equilibrium temperature of the system before the splitting process. We conjecture that this state can be described through a generalized Gibbs ensemble and associate it with pre-thermalization.

**Groupmeeting by Stefan Trotzky, Feb 29th, 2012**

Orbital Excitation Blockade and Algorithmic Cooling in Quantum Gases

Waseem S. Bakr, Philipp M. Preiss, M. Eric Tai, Ruichao Ma, Jonathan Simon & Markus Greiner

Interaction blockade occurs when strong interactions in a confined, few-body system prevent a particle from occupying an otherwise accessible quantum state. Blockade phenomena reveal the underlying granular nature of quantum systems and allow for the detection and manipulation of the constituent particles, be they electrons¹, spins², atoms^{3, 4, 5} or photons⁶. Applications include single-electron transistors based on electronic Coulomb blockade⁷ and quantum logic gates in Rydberg atoms^{8, 9}. Here we report a form of interaction blockade that occurs when transferring ultracold atoms between orbitals in an optical lattice. We call this orbital excitation blockade (OEB). In this system, atoms at the same lattice site undergo coherent collisions described by a contact interaction whose strength depends strongly on the orbital wavefunctions of the atoms. We induce coherent orbital excitations by modulating the lattice depth, and observe staircase-like excitation behaviour as we cross the interaction-split resonances by tuning the modulation frequency. As an application of OEB, we demonstrate algorithmic cooling^{10, 11} of quantum gases: a sequence of reversible OEB-based quantum operations isolates the entropy in one part of the system and then an irreversible step removes the entropy from the gas. This technique may make it possible to cool quantum gases to have the ultralow entropies required for quantum simulation^{12, 13} of strongly correlated electron systems. In addition, the close analogy between OEB and dipole blockade in Rydberg atoms provides a plan for the implementation of two-quantum-bit gates¹⁴ in a quantum computing architecture with natural scalability.

**Groupmeeting by Ramon Ramos, Feb 22nd, 2012**

Quantum-coherent coupling of a mechanical oscillator to an optical cavity mode

E. Verhagen, S. Deléglise, S. Weis, A. Schliesser & T. J. Kippenberg

Optical laser fields have been widely used to achieve quantum control over the motional and internal degrees of freedom of atoms and ions1, 2, molecules and atomic gases. A route to controlling the quantum states of macroscopic mechanical oscillators in a similar fashion is to exploit the parametric coupling between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom through radiation pressure in suitably engineered optical cavities3, 4, 5, 6. If the optomechanical coupling is ‘quantum coherent’—that is, if the coherent coupling rate exceeds both the optical and the mechanical decoherence rate—quantum states are transferred from the optical field to the mechanical oscillator and vice versa. This transfer allows control of the mechanical oscillator state using the wide range of available quantum optical techniques. So far, however, quantum-coherent coupling of micromechanical oscillators has only been achieved using microwave fields at millikelvin temperatures7, 8. Optical experiments have not attained this regime owing to the large mechanical decoherence rates9 and the difficulty of overcoming optical dissipation10. Here we achieve quantum-coherent coupling between optical photons and a micromechanical oscillator. Simultaneously, coupling to the cold photon bath cools the mechanical oscillator to an average occupancy of 1.7 ± 0.1 motional quanta. Excitation with weak classical light pulses reveals the exchange of energy between the optical light field and the micromechanical oscillator in the time domain at the level of less than one quantum on average. This optomechanical system establishes an efficient quantum interface between mechanical oscillators and optical photons, which can provide decoherence-free transport of quantum states through optical fibres. Our results offer a route towards the use of mechanical oscillators as quantum transducers or in microwave-to-optical quantum links11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

**Groupmeeting by Dan Fine, Feb 15th, 2012**

Spin Gradient Demagnetization Cooling of Ultracold Atoms

Patrick Medley, David M. Weld, Hirokazu Miyake, David E. Pritchard, and Wolfgang Ketterle

We demonstrate a new cooling method in which a time-varying magnetic field gradient is applied to an ultracold spin mixture. This enables preparation of isolated spin distributions at positive and negative effective spin temperatures of ±50   pK. The spin system can also be used to cool other degrees of freedom, and we have used this coupling to cool an apparently equilibrated Mott insulator of rubidium atoms to 350 pK. These are the lowest temperatures ever measured in any system. The entropy of the spin mixture is in the regime where magnetic ordering is expected.

**Groupmeeting by Matin Hallaji, Feb 8th, 2012**

Controlling the quantum stereodynamics of ultracold bimolecular reactions

M. H. G. de Miranda, A. Chotia, B. Neyenhuis, D. Wang, G. Quéméner, S. Ospelkaus, J. L. Bohn, J. Ye & D. S. Jin

Molecular collisions in the quantum regime represent a new opportunity to explore chemical reactions. Recently, atom-exchangereactions were observed in a trapped ultracold gas of KRb molecules. In an external electric field, these polar molecules can easily be oriented and the exothermic and barrierless bimolecular reactions, KRb+KRbK₂+Rb₂, occur at a rate that rises steeply with increasing dipole moment. Here we demonstrate the suppression of the bimolecular chemical reaction rate by nearly two orders of magnitude when we use an optical lattice trap to confine the fermionic polar molecules in a quasi-two-dimensional, pancake-like geometry, with the dipoles oriented along the tight confinement direction. With the combination of sufficiently tight confinement and Fermi statistics of the molecules, two polar molecules can approach each other only in a ‘side-by-side’ collision under repulsive dipole–dipole interactions. The suppression of chemical reactions is a prerequisite for the realization of new molecule-based quantum systems.

**Groupmeeting by Paul Godin, Feb 1st, 2012**

Klein Tunneling of a Quasirelativistic Bose-Einstein Condensate in an Optical Lattice

Tobias Salger, Christopher Grossert, Sebastian Kling, and Martin Weitz

A proof-of-principle experiment simulating effects predicted by relativistic wave equations with ultracold atoms in a bichromatic optical lattice that allows for a tailoring of the dispersion relation is reported. We observe the analog of Klein tunneling, the penetration of relativistic particles through a potential barrier without the exponential damping that is characteristic for nonrelativistic quantum tunneling. Both linear (relativistic) and quadratic (nonrelativistic) dispersion relations are investigated, and significant barrier transmission is observed only for the relativistic case.

**Groupmeeting by Shreyas Potnis, Jan 25th, 2012**

Observation of Correlated Particle-Hole Pairs and String Order in Low-Dimensional Mott Insulators

M. Endres, M. Cheneau, T. Fukuhara, C. Weitenberg, P. Schauß, C. Gross, L. Mazza, M. C. Bañuls, L. Pollet, I. Bloch, S. Kuhr

Quantum phases of matter are characterized by the underlying correlations of the many-body system. Although this is typically captured by a local order parameter, it has been shown that a broad class of many-body systems possesses a hidden nonlocal order. In the case of bosonic Mott insulators, the ground state properties are governed by quantum fluctuations in the form of correlated particle-hole pairs that lead to the emergence of a nonlocal string order in one dimension. By using high-resolution imaging of low-dimensional quantum gases in an optical lattice, we directly detect these pairs with single-site and single-particle sensitivity and observe string order in the one-dimensional case.

**Groupmeeting by Carolyn Kierans, Jan 18th, 2012**

Spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates

Y.-J. Lin, K. Jiménez-García & I. B. Spielman

Spin–orbit (SO) coupling—the interaction between a quantum particle’s spin and its momentum—is ubiquitous in physical systems. In condensed matter systems, SO coupling is crucial for the spin-Hall effect and topological insulators; it contributes to the electronic properties of materials such as GaAs, and is important for spintronic devices. Quantum many-body systems of ultracold atoms can be precisely controlled experimentally, and would therefore seem to provide an ideal platform on which to study SO coupling. Although an atom’s intrinsic SO coupling affects its electronic structure, it does not lead to coupling between the spin and the centre-of-mass motion of the atom. Here, we engineer SO coupling (with equal Rashba and Dresselhaus strengths) in a neutral atomic Bose–Einstein condensate by dressing two atomic spin states with a pair of lasers. Such coupling has not been realized previously for ultracold atomic gases, or indeed any bosonic system. Furthermore, in the presence of the laser coupling, the interactions between the two dressed atomic spin states are modified, driving a quantum phase transition from a spatially spin-mixed state (lasers off) to a phase-separated state (above a critical laser intensity). We develop a many-body theory that provides quantitative agreement with the observed location of the transition. The engineered SO coupling—equally applicable for bosons and fermions—sets the stage for the realization of topological insulators in fermionic neutral atom systems.

**Groupmeeting by Graham Edge, Nov 30th, 2011**

The quantum state cannot be interpreted statistically

Matthew F. Pusey, Jonathan Barrett, Terry Rudolph

Quantum states are the key mathematical objects in quantum theory. It is therefore surprising that physicists have been unable to agree on what a quantum state represents. There are at least two opposing schools of thought, each almost as old as quantum theory itself. One is that a pure state is a physical property of system, much like position and momentum in classical mechanics. Another is that even a pure state has only a statistical significance, akin to a probability distribution in statistical mechanics. Here we show that, given only very mild assumptions, the statistical interpretation of the quantum state is inconsistent with the predictions of quantum theory. This result holds even in the presence of small amounts of experimental noise, and is therefore amenable to experimental test using present or near-future technology. If the predictions of quantum theory are confirmed, such a test would show that distinct quantum states must correspond to physically distinct states of reality.

**Groupmeeting by Lee Rozema, Nov 23rd, 2011**

Light Propagation with Phase Discontinuities: Generalized Laws of Reflection and Refraction

Nanfang Yu, Patrice Genevet, Mikhail A. Kats, Francesco Aieta, Jean-Philippe Tetienne, Federico Capasso, Zeno Gaburro

Conventional optical components rely on gradual phase shifts accumulated during light propagation to shape light beams. New degrees of freedom are attained by introducing abrupt phase changes over the scale of the wavelength. A two-dimensional array of optical resonators with spatially varying phase response and subwavelength separation can imprint such phase discontinuities on propagating light as it traverses the interface between two media. Anomalous reflection and refraction phenomena are observed in this regime in optically thin arrays of metallic antennas on silicon with a linear phase variation along the interface, which are in excellent agreement with generalized laws derived from Fermat’s principle. Phase discontinuities provide great flexibility in the design of light beams, as illustrated by the generation of optical vortices through use of planar designer metallic interfaces.

**Groupmeeting by Rockson Chang, Nov 16th, 2011**

Exploring Symmetry Breaking at the Dicke Quantum Phase Transition

K. Baumann, R. Mottl, F. Brennecke, and T. Esslinger

We study symmetry breaking at the Dicke quantum phase transition by coupling a motional degree of freedom of a Bose-Einstein condensate to the field of an optical cavity. Using an optical heterodyne detection scheme, we observe symmetry breaking in real time and distinguish the two superradiant phases. We explore the process of symmetry breaking in the presence of a small symmetry-breaking field and study its dependence on the rate at which the critical point is crossed. Coherent switching between the two ordered phases is demonstrated.

**Groupmeeting by Nathan Cheng, Nov 9th, 2011**

Unconditional room-temperature quantum memory

M. Hosseini, G. Campbell, B. M. Sparkes, P. K. Lam & B. C. Buchler

Just as classical information systems require buffers and memory, the same is true for quantum information systems. The potential that optical quantum information processing holds for revolutionizing computation and communication is therefore driving significant research into developing optical quantum memory. A practical optical quantum memory must be able to store and recall quantum states on demand with high efficiency and low noise. Ideally, the platform for the memory would also be simple and inexpensive. Here, we present a complete tomographic reconstruction of quantum states that have been stored in the ground states of rubidium in a vapour cell operating at around 80 °C. Without conditional measurements, we show recall fidelity up to 98% for coherent pulses containing around one photon. To unambiguously verify that our memory beats the quantum no-cloning limit we employ state-independent verification using conditional variance and signal-transfer coefficients.

**Groupmeeting by Amir Feizpour, Nov 2nd, 2011**

Coherent coupling of a superconducting flux qubit to an electron spin ensemble in diamond

Xiaobo Zhu, Shiro Saito, Alexander Kemp, Kosuke Kakuyanagi, Shin-ichi Karimoto, Hayato Nakano, William J. Munro, Yasuhiro Tokura, Mark S. Everitt, Kae Nemoto, Makoto Kasu, Norikazu Mizuochi & Kouichi Semba

During the past decade, research into superconducting quantum bits (qubits) based on Josephson junctions has made rapid progress. Many foundational experiments have been performed, and superconducting qubits are now considered one of the most promising systems for quantum information processing. However, the experimentally reported coherence times are likely to be insufficient for future large-scale quantum computation. A natural solution to this problem is a dedicated engineered quantum memory based on atomic and molecular systems. The question of whether coherent quantum coupling is possible between such natural systems and a single macroscopic artificial atom has attracted considerable attention since the first demonstration of macroscopic quantum coherence in Josephson junction circuits. Here we report evidence of coherent strong coupling between a single macroscopic superconducting artificial atom (a flux qubit) and an ensemble of electron spins in the form of nitrogen–vacancy colour centres in diamond. Furthermore, we have observed coherent exchange of a single quantum of energy between a flux qubit and a macroscopic ensemble consisting of about 3 × 10^7 such colour centres. This provides a foundation for future quantum memories and hybrid devices coupling microwave and optical systems.

**Groupmeeting by Xingxing Xing, Oct 19th, 2011**

Cavity-Enhanced Frequency Comb Spectroscopy

A. Foltynowicz, T. Ban, P. Maslowski, F. Adler, J. Ye

What happens when you combine a frequency comb with a cavity

OR

How Jun Ye knows if you're a smoker

**Groupmeeting by Dylan Jervis, Oct 12th, 2011**