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arXiv:1403.1378 · Physical Review A

Dissipative Landau-Zener level crossing subject to continuous measurement: Excitation despite decay

Pinja Haikka, Klaus Mølmer

Published May 15, 2014• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The Landau-Zener formula provides an analytical expression for the final excitation of a quantum system after passage of an avoided crossing of two energy levels. If the two levels correspond to a ground state and to an excited state which is subject to radiative decay, the probability of exciting the system by adiabatic passage of the level crossing is reduced. In this article we use a stochastic master equation to study the level crossing dynamics when the system is subject to continuous probing of the emitted radiation. The measurement back action on the system associated with the fluctuating homodyne detection record alters the level crossing dynamics, leading to significant excitation in spite of decay and imperfect transfer.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.89.052114

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The Landau-Zener formula provides an analytical expression for the final excitation of a quantum system after passage of an avoided crossing of two energy levels. If the two levels correspond to a ground state and to an excited state which is subject to radiative decay, the probability of exciting the system by adiabatic passage of the level crossing is reduced. In this article we use a stochastic master equation to study the level crossing dynamics when the system is subject to continuous probing of the emitted radiation. The measurement back action on the system associated with the fluctuating homodyne detection record alters the level crossing dynamics, leading to significant excitation in spite of decay and imperfect transfer.
Using a comparison equation method rooted in the Landau-Zener model, we report results for the probability of transition and survival in two-state models for a crossing of levels having some width, to account for dissipation. The theory allows arbitrary forms for the state energies, their rate of decay, and coupling, subject only to the limitation inherent in the Landau-Zener class (coupling with infinite ``pulse area''). We show how the strong decay result of adiabatic elimination can be recovered, but with important restrictions as to its usability. We also confirm the validity of the well-known Dykhne formula for crossings of real energy levels, and use the new theory to extend the Dykhne result to a class of dissipative crossings we call pseudoreal. Finally, we examine the overall probability for transition at two successive crossings, as occurs in atomic collisions. Here, interference of the crossing states leads to oscillations in the transition probability with collision time. For slow collisions we find that even a modest level of dissipation heavily damps these oscillations, but at the same time enhances the average probability of transition.
An analytical study of the dissipative Landau-Zener model is presented. The model where two energy levels at constant speed are brought to cross is a standard model used to describe a large variety of phenomena. In many cases of interest the presence of coupling of the two-state system to an environment is of importance, the accounting for which shall be done here from first principles. Analytical results for the excitation transition from the ground state of the two-state system at large negative times to the excited state at large positive times (as well as the opposite, decay, transition) are obtained in terms of the speed by which the two levels approach each other, the energy gap between the adiabatic energies, the coupling strength to the environment, and its temperature. For the excitation transition we find the following results: In the slow-passage limit of small sweeping speed it is shown that adiabaticity is limited to low temperatures and the quantitative adiabatic criterion is established. Particularly, at zero temperature there is no influence of the environment on the transition probability as a consequence of a compensation property shown to be peculiar to the linear-sweep model. The transition is at low temperatures due to quantum tunneling and, with an increase in temperature, an intermediate region appears where the transition is dominated by thermally assisted transitions across the energy gap before finally at high temperatures a saturated regime is reached with equal population of the levels. In contrast to the dependence on the temperature the dependence of the transition probability as a function of coupling strength is nonmonotonic with maximum influence at intermediate strength. In the fast-passage limit with rapid sweep speed there is no influence of the environment on the transition probability. For the decay transition the adiabatic limit does not exist for the linear-sweep model for physically relevant spectra of the environment and the decay transition is dominated by spontaneous emission, except in the fast-passage limit and the high-temperature limit where the decay transition probability equals the excitation probability.
Dynamical Crossover in Landau−-−Zener Tunneling in Dissipative Rydberg Lattices
In this work, we investigate the excitation dynamics of a Rabi-coupled dissipative Rydberg lattice with a time-dependent detuning. The system is analyzed using (i) a Lindblad master equation within a mean-field approximation and (ii) an effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian framework. While the mean-field approach captures the emergence of an antiferromagnetic order in the Rydberg excitation profile, the non-Hermitian description provides direct insight into the complex energy spectrum and its avoided crossings, which govern the Landau−-−Zener dynamics. We identify a regime in which the sublattice population imbalance vanishes near the avoided crossing, resulting in identical Landau−-−Zener probabilities on the two sublattices. Beyond a critical effective blockade strength there is a dynamical crossover to another regime in which the sublattice population imbalance persists through the avoided crossing, giving rise to sublattice-dependent Landau−-−Zener probabilities. Furthermore, Rydberg interactions prolong the lifetime of Landau−-−Zener-induced excitations in the presence of weak dissipation and strong Rabi coupling. In contrast, for weak Rabi coupling, the Rydberg blockade inhibits excitation and suppresses the Landau−-−Zener transition probability.
Abstract Three analytic solutions to the Schrödinger equation for the time-dependent Landau–Zener (LZ) Hamiltonian are presented. They correspond to specific finite-time driving paths in a bounded parameter space of a two-level system. Two of these paths go through the avoided crossing of levels, either with a constant speed or with variable speed that decreases in the region of reduced energy gap, the third path bypasses the crossing such that the energy gap remains constant. The solutions yield exact time dependencies of the excitation probability for the system evolving from the ground state of the initial Hamiltonian. The LZ formula emerges as an approximation valid within a certain interval of driving times for the constant-speed driving through the avoided crossing. For long driving times, all solutions converge to the prediction of the adiabatic perturbation theory. The excitation probability vanishes at some discrete time instants.
We establish a stochastic thermodynamics for a Fermionic level driven by a time-dependent force and interacting with initially thermalized levels playing the role of a reservoir. The driving induces consecutive avoided crossings between system and reservoir levels described within Landau-Zener theory. We derive the resulting system dynamics and thermodynamics and identify energy, work, heat, entropy, and dissipation. Our theory perfectly reproduces the numerically exact quantum work statistics obtained using a two point measurements approach of the total energy and provides an explicit expression for the dissipation in terms of diabatic transitions.
We investigate the Landau–Zener (LZ) like dynamics of decaying two- and three-level systems with decay rates Γ 1 and Γ 2 for levels with minimum and maximum spin projection. Non-adiabatic and adiabatic transition probabilities are calculated from diabatic and adiabatic bases for two- and three-level systems. We extend the familiar two-level model of atoms with decay from the excited state out of the system into the hierarchy of three-level models which can be solved analytically or computationally in a non-perturbative manner. Exact analytical solutions are obtained within the framework of an extended form of the proposed procedure which enables to take into account all possible initial moments rather than large negative time t 0 = − ∞ as in standard LZ problems. We elucidate the applications of our results from a unified theoretical basis that numerically analyzes the dynamics of a system as probed by experiments.