0000000001151210

AUTHOR

Tommaso Calarco

A simple quantum gate with atom chips

We present a simple scheme for implementing an atomic phase gate using two degrees of freedom for each atom and discuss its realization with cold rubidium atoms on atom chips. We investigate the performance of this collisional phase gate and show that gate operations with high fidelity can be realized in magnetic traps that are currently available on atom chips.

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Generalised Kronig-Penney model for ultracold atomic quantum systems

We study the properties of a quantum particle interacting with a one dimensional structure of equidistant scattering centres. We derive an analytical expression for the dispersion relation and for the Bloch functions in the presence of both even and odd scattering waves within the pseudopotential approximation. This generalises the well-known solid-state physics text-book result known as the Kronig-Penney model. Our generalised model can be used to describe systems such as degenerate Fermi gases interacting with ions or with another neutral atomic species confined in an optical lattice, thus enabling the investigation of polaron or Kondo physics within a simple formalism. We focus our atten…

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Training Schrödinger’s cat: quantum optimal control

It is control that turns scientific knowledge into useful technology: in physics and engineering itprovides a systematic way for driving a dynamical system from a given initial state into a desired targetstate with minimized expenditure of energy and resources. As one of the cornerstones for enabling quantumtechnologies, optimal quantum control keeps evolving and expanding into areas as diverse as quantumenhancedsensing, manipulation of single spins, photons, or atoms, optical spectroscopy, photochemistry,magnetic resonance (spectroscopy as well as medical imaging), quantum information processing and quantumsimulation. In this communication, state-of-the-art quantum control techniques are r…

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COMPLEXITY, NOISE AND QUANTUM INFORMATION ON ATOM CHIPS

The realization of quantum logic gates with neutral atoms on atom chips is investigated, including realistic features, such as noise and actual experimental setups.

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Emulating Solid-State Physics with a Hybrid System of Ultracold Ions and Atoms

We propose and theoretically investigate a hybrid system composed of a crystal of trapped ions coupled to a cloud of ultracold fermions. The ions form a periodic lattice and induce a band structure in the atoms. This system combines the advantages of scalability and tunability of ultracold atomic systems with the high fidelity operations and detection offered by trapped ion systems. It also features close analogies to natural solid-state systems, as the atomic degrees of freedom couple to phonons of the ion lattice, thereby emulating a solid-state system. Starting from the microscopic many-body Hamiltonian, we derive the low energy Hamiltonian including the atomic band structure and give an…

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Phonon-to-spin mapping in a system of a trapped ion via optimal control

We propose a protocol for measurement of the phonon number distribution of a harmonic oscillator based on selective mapping to a discrete spin-1/2 degree of freedom. We consider a system of a harmonically trapped ion, where a transition between two long-lived states can be driven with resolved motional sidebands. The required unitary transforms are generated by amplitude-modulated polychromatic radiation fields, where the time-domain ramps are obtained from numerical optimization by application of the chopped random basis algorithm (CRAB). We provide a detailed analysis of the scaling behavior of the attainable fidelities and required times for the mapping transform with respect to the size…

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Colloquium: Trapped ions as quantum bits -- essential numerical tools

Trapped, laser-cooled atoms and ions are quantum systems which can be experimentally controlled with an as yet unmatched degree of precision. Due to the control of the motion and the internal degrees of freedom, these quantum systems can be adequately described by a well known Hamiltonian. In this colloquium, we present powerful numerical tools for the optimization of the external control of the motional and internal states of trapped neutral atoms, explicitly applied to the case of trapped laser-cooled ions in a segmented ion-trap. We then delve into solving inverse problems, when optimizing trapping potentials for ions. Our presentation is complemented by a quantum mechanical treatment of…

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Quantum control theory for decoherence suppression in quantum gates

We show how quantum optimal control theory can help achieve high-fidelity quantum gates in real experimental settings. We discuss several optimization methods (from iterative algorithms to optimization by interference and to impulsive control) and different physical scenarios (from optical lattices to atom chips and to Rydberg atoms).

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Theoretical analysis of a realistic atom-chip quantum gate

9 pages, 5 color figures; International audience; We present a detailed, realistic analysis of the implementation of a proposal for a quantum phase gate based on atomic vibrational states, specializing it to neutral rubidium atoms on atom chips. We show how to create a double-well potential with static currents on the atom chips, using for all relevant parameters values that are achieved with present technology. The potential barrier between the two wells can be modified by varying the currents in order to realize a quantum phase gate for qubit states encoded in the atomic external degree of freedom. The gate performance is analyzed through numerical simulations; the operation time is ~10 m…

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Mixed internal-external state approach for quantum computation with neutral atoms on atom chips

We present a realistic proposal for the storage and processing of quantum information with cold Rb atoms on atom chips. The qubit states are stored in hyperfine atomic levels with long coherence time, and two-qubit quantum phase gates are realized using the motional states of the atoms. Two-photon Raman transitions are used to transfer the qubit information from the internal to the external degree of freedom. The quantum phase gate is realized in a double-well potential created by slowly varying dc currents in the atom chip wires. Using realistic values for all experimental parameters (currents, magnetic fields, ...) we obtain high gate fidelities (above 99.9%) in short operation times (~ 1…

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Microwave potentials and optimal control for robust quantum gates on an atom chip

We propose a two-qubit collisional phase gate that can be implemented with available atom chip technology, and present a detailed theoretical analysis of its performance. The gate is based on earlier phase gate schemes, but uses a qubit state pair with an experimentally demonstrated, very long coherence lifetime. Microwave near-fields play a key role in our implementation as a means to realize the state-dependent potentials required for conditional dynamics. Quantum control algorithms are used to optimize gate performance. We employ circuit configurations that can be built with current fabrication processes, and extensively discuss the impact of technical noise and imperfections that charac…

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Training Schr\"odinger's cat: quantum optimal control

It is control that turns scientific knowledge into useful technology: in physics and engineering it provides a systematic way for driving a system from a given initial state into a desired target state with minimized expenditure of energy and resources -- as famously applied in the Apollo programme. As one of the cornerstones for enabling quantum technologies, optimal quantum control keeps evolving and expanding into areas as diverse as quantum-enhanced sensing, manipulation of single spins, photons, or atoms, optical spectroscopy, photochemistry, magnetic resonance (spectroscopy as well as medical imaging), quantum information processing and quantum simulation. --- Here state-of-the-art qu…

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