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arXiv:1805.02054 · Physical Review A

Fast shuttling of a particle under weak spring-constant noise of the moving trap

Xiao-Jing Lu, A. Ruschhaupt, Juan Gonzalo Muga

Published May 2, 2018• 26 citations
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Abstract

We investigate the excitation of a quantum particle shuttled in a harmonic trap with weak spring-constant colored noise. The Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model for the noise correlation function describes a wide range of possible noises, in particular for short correlation times the white-noise limit examined by Lu et al. [Phys. Rev. A 89, 063414 (2014)] and, by averaging over correlation times, ``$1/f$ flicker noise.'' We find expressions for the excitation energy in terms of static (independent of trap motion) and dynamical sensitivities, with opposite behavior with respect to shuttling time, and demonstrate that the excitation can be reduced by proper process timing and design of the trap trajectory.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.97.053402

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We investigate the excitation of a quantum particle shuttled in a harmonic trap with weak spring-constant colored noise. The Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model for the noise correlation function describes a wide range of possible noises, in particular for short correlation times the white-noise limit examined by Lu et al. [Phys. Rev. A 89, 063414 (2014)] and, by averaging over correlation times, ``1/f1/f1/f flicker noise.'' We find expressions for the excitation energy in terms of static (independent of trap motion) and dynamical sensitivities, with opposite behavior with respect to shuttling time, and demonstrate that the excitation can be reduced by proper process timing and design of the trap trajectory.
Abstract We find continuous optimal trap trajectories to shuttle one ion with minimal excitation, when the trap spring constant is affected by white noise. The Euler-Lagrange method gives a lower bound for the dynamical (trajectory-dependent) energy sensitivity to the noise. Using a trigonometric ansatz for the state trajectories, the optimal trap trajectories are found for a given shuttling time and a fixed number of terms in the ansatz. The corresponding dynamical sensitivity tends to the lower bound as the number of terms increases. While the dynamical sensitivity increases by shortening the shuttling times, the static (trajectory-independent) one decreases, so we also find optimal shuttling times that minimize the global (static plus dynamical) sensitivity.
The motion of a particle in a finite-depth confining potential, such as that of an electromagnetically trapped atom or ion, is approximately harmonic at low energy and softens as the escape energy is approached. When the particle is driven by a stochastic force, the heating and escape times depend sensitively on the noise power spectrum. We study escape times of particles in softening potentials driven by power-law colored noise. We identify two nested conditions for weak noise: the particle must execute many oscillations before escape, and noise forces must be small relative to forces exerted by the trap so as not to tilt the potential appreciably. In this regime, we derive expressions for the mean escape time using stochastic averaging techniques and compare them with Monte Carlo simulations of the full equations of motion. We also examine the crossover to regimes where these conditions are not met and large quasi-static forces give rise to additional escape mechanisms. Applying these results to an experimental measurement of lifetimes in a microfabricated ion trap, we find that spectral color alone cannot account for the rapid escape rates observed, whereas quasi-static barrier tilting by a stray field of plausible magnitude could. These results are relevant to the heating and escape of trapped atoms due to noisy force fields, as well as to other nonlinear oscillators subject to colored noise.
Abstract Ions confined in a Paul trap serve as crucial platforms in various research fields, including quantum computing and precision spectroscopy. However, the ion dynamics is inevitably influenced by different types of noise, which require accurate computations and general analytical analysis to facilitate diverse applications based on trapped ions with white or colored noise. In the present work, we investigate the motion of ions in a Paul trap via the Langevin equation using both analytical and numerical methods, systematically studying three different types of noise: the white noise, the colored noise via the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process and the Wiener process. For the white noise of the case, we provide a recursion method to calculate ion motion for a wide range of parameters. Furthermore, we present an analytical solution to the more realistic stochastic process associated with the colored noise, verified by the Monte Carlo simulation. By comparing the results of the colored noise with those of the white noise, and additionally considering another limit of noise parameters corresponding to the Wiener process, we summarize the effects of different noise types on the ion dynamics.
The stochastic Schrödinger equation (SSE) provides a trajectory-level route to simulate the dynamics of open quantum systems with applications ranging from molecular processes to quantum technologies. We study a colored-noise extension of the SSE based on an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) noise drive and benchmark its ensemble-averaged dynamics against the standard white-noise SSE and against a fluctuating OU random Hamiltonian. When the environment exhibits a finite correlation time, averaging over pure-state trajectories yields master equations that are generally open-form and not of Lindblad type, yet remain positive by construction. By considering the differential of the OU process, we define an effective correlated noise, whose properties we analyze and use to formulate an SSE unraveling of its associated open-form quantum master equation. We show that the averaged dissipator separates into a Lindblad contribution stemming from the white-noise component and additional correlation terms arising from the fluctuations of the OU Hamiltonian. To obtain a practical closed description and physical intuition, we introduce a Redfield-inspired perturbative closure for these correlation terms, providing an effective master equation for the colored SSE. For a two-level system, the resulting dynamics exhibit long-lived coherences, nontrivial stationary (including oscillatory) states, and multi-timescale relaxation, rationalized through the components of a time-dependent Redfield tensor.
We study the fast transport of a particle or a Bose-Einstein condensate in a harmonic potential. An exact expression for the final excitation energy in terms of the Fourier transform of the trap acceleration is used to engineer optimal transport protocols (with no final excitation) that are robust with respect to spring-constant errors. The same technique provides a way to design the simultaneous and robust transport of a few noninteracting species that experience different harmonic trap frequencies in the same trap.