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arXiv:1312.5121 · Physical Review B

Oscillator tunneling dynamics in the Rabi model

E. K. Twyeffort Irish, Julio R. Gea-Banacloche

Published Feb 21, 2014• 34 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The familiar Rabi model, comprising a two-level system coupled to a quantum harmonic oscillator, continues to produce rich and surprising physics when the coupling strength becomes comparable to the individual subsystem frequencies. We construct approximate solutions for the eigenstates and energies in the regime in which the oscillator frequency is small compared to that of the two-level system and the coupling strength matches or exceeds the oscillator frequency. The resulting oscillator dynamics closely resembles that of a particle tunneling in a classical double-well potential. Relating our calculation to an earlier semiclassical approximation in which coupling to the two-level system creates an effective potential for the oscillator, we examine the extent to which this picture is valid. We find that, for certain parameter regimes, the interpretation of the oscillator dynamics in terms of tunneling holds to a good approximation despite the fundamentally entangled nature of the joint system. We assess the prospects for observation of oscillator tunneling in the context of nano- or micromechanical experiments and find that it should be possible if suitably high coupling strengths can be engineered.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.89.085421

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The familiar Rabi model, comprising a two-level system coupled to a quantum harmonic oscillator, continues to produce rich and surprising physics when the coupling strength becomes comparable to the individual subsystem frequencies. We construct approximate solutions for the eigenstates and energies in the regime in which the oscillator frequency is small compared to that of the two-level system and the coupling strength matches or exceeds the oscillator frequency. The resulting oscillator dynamics closely resembles that of a particle tunneling in a classical double-well potential. Relating our calculation to an earlier semiclassical approximation in which coupling to the two-level system creates an effective potential for the oscillator, we examine the extent to which this picture is valid. We find that, for certain parameter regimes, the interpretation of the oscillator dynamics in terms of tunneling holds to a good approximation despite the fundamentally entangled nature of the joint system. We assess the prospects for observation of oscillator tunneling in the context of nano- or micromechanical experiments and find that it should be possible if suitably high coupling strengths can be engineered.
We examine a two-level system coupled to a quantum oscillator, typically representing experiments in cavity and circuit quantum electrodynamics. We show how such a system can be treated analytically in the ultrastrong coupling limit, where the ratio $g/\ensuremath{\Omega}$ between coupling strength and oscillator frequency approaches unity and goes beyond. In this regime the Jaynes-Cummings model is known to fail because counter-rotating terms have to be taken into account. By using Van Vleck perturbation theory to higher orders in the qubit tunneling matrix element $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ we are able to enlarge the regime of applicability of existing analytical treatments, including, in particular, also the finite-bias case. We present a detailed discussion on the energy spectrum of the system and on the dynamics of the qubit for an oscillator at low temperature. We consider the coupling strength ggg to all orders, and the validity of our approach is even enhanced in the ultrastrong coupling regime. Looking at the Fourier spectrum of the population difference, we find that many frequencies contribute to the dynamics. They are gathered into groups whose spacing depends on the qubit-oscillator detuning. Furthermore, the dynamics is not governed anymore by a vacuum Rabi splitting which scales linearly with ggg, but by a nontrivial dressing of the tunneling matrix element, which can be used to suppress specific frequencies through a variation of the coupling.
The coupling of a two-level system with an electromagnetic field, whose fully quantized version is the quantum Rabi model, is among the central topics of quantum physics. When the coupling strength becomes large enough that the field mode frequency is reached, the deep strong coupling regime is approached, and excitations can be created from the vacuum. Here we demonstrate a periodic variant of the quantum Rabi model in which the two-level system is encoded in the Bloch band structure of cold rubidium atoms in optical potentials. With this method we achieve a Rabi coupling strength of 6.5 times the field mode frequency, which is far in the deep strong coupling regime, and observe a subcycle timescale raise in bosonic field mode excitations. In a measurement recorded in the basis of the coupling term of the quantum Rabi Hamiltonian, a freezing of dynamics is revealed for small frequency splittings of the two-level system, as expected when the coupling term dominates over all other energy scales, and a revival for larger splittings. Our work demonstrates a route to realize quantum-engineering applications in yet unexplored parameter regimes.
We consider one-dimensional chains of two-level quantum systems coupled via tunneling. The chain is driven by the superposition of dc and ac fields in the strong coupling regime. Based on the fundamental principles of electrodynamics and quantum theory, we have developed a generalized model of quantum dynamics for such interactions, free of rotating-wave approximation. The system of equations of motion was studied numerically. We analyzed the dynamics and spectra of the inversion density, dipole current density, and tunneling current density. In the case of resonant interaction with the ac component, the particle dynamics exhibits itself in the oscillatory regime, which may be interpreted as a combination of Rabi and Bloch oscillations with their strong mutual influence. Such scenario for an obliquely incident ac field dramatically differs from the individual picture of both types of oscillations due to the interactions. This effect is counterintuitive because of the existence of markedly different frequency ranges for such two types of oscillations. These dynamics manifest themselves in multiline spectra in different combinations of Rabi and Bloch frequencies. The effect is promising as a framework of a new type of spectroscopy in nanoelectronics and electrical control of nanodevices.
Levitated particles trapped in double-well potentials provide a promising platform for exploring quantum dynamics beyond the harmonic regime. We show that such systems exhibit a distinctive quantum signature arising from tunneling-assisted interference. Unlike classical dynamics, where the two wells are disconnected, in the quantum case, quantum tunneling enables eigenstates to delocalize into the other well, creating nonzero overlaps between adjacent eigenstates that introduce low-frequency components into the evolution of the mean particle position. By comparing quantum and classical dynamics of particles in one-dimensional double-well potentials, we demonstrate that this interference is uniquely quantum and can be identified through the oscillation of the average position alone. We further relate the observed spectral peaks to the structure of the energy eigenvalues. The effect provides a promising probe of the quantum signature of levitated particle motion, and has fundamental importance as it predicts the demonstration of two major phenomena of quantum mechanics, quantum tunneling and quantum interference, at the same time and on the same system.
The polaron picture is employed to investigate and elucidate the physics of the two-qubit quantum Rabi model, which describes two identical qubits coupled to a common harmonic oscillator. This approach enables us to obtain the ground-state energy and some other simpler physical observables with high accuracy in all regimes of the coupling strengths ggg, while there is no constraint to the ration of tunneling frequency $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}$ and field frequency $\ensuremath{\omega}$, which is not simultaneously possible using previous methods. In addition, we also discover a phenomenon that is not present in the one-qubit Rabi model: with the increase of coupling strength ggg, there is a transition of the ground state of the system from a multipolaron state to a bipolaron state. However, the tunneling frequency $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}$ counteracts this process. Specifically, when the tunneling frequency $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}=0$, the system always stays in the bipolaron state.
We revisit the analytic solution of the two-qubit quantum Rabi model with inhomogeneous coupling and transition frequencies using a displaced oscillator basis. This approach enables us to apply the same truncation rules and techniques adopted in the Rabi model to the two qubits system. The derived analytical spectra match perfectly with the numerical solutions in the parameter regime where the qubits’ transition frequencies are far off-resonance with the field frequency and the interaction strengths reach the ultrastrong coupling regime. We further explore the dynamical behavior of the two qubits as well as the evolution of entanglement. The analytical methods provide unexpectedly accurate results in describing the dynamics of the two qubits in the present experimentally accessible coupling regime. The time evolutions of the probability for the qubits show that the collapse-revival phenomena emerge, survive and finally disappear when one coupling strength increases from weak to strong coupling regimes and the other coupling strength is well into the ultrastrong coupling regime. The inhomogeneous coupling system exhibits new dynamics, which are different from the homogeneous coupling case.