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European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC)

New insights into quantum Rabi oscillations in a coherent field

S. Gleyzes, Paolo Maioli, Alexia Auffèves, Tristan Meunier, Gilles Nogues, M. Brune, J. M. Raimond, S. Haroche

Published Jan 1, 2003• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Direct investigation of the coherent field evolution is reported. A system of homodyne detection to measure the evolution of the phase, is developed and non trivial effects of the interaction upon the field is found. Initial coherent field is shown to split into two macroscopically different phase components, correlated to the initial value of the dipole operator of the atom. Experimental apparatus uses circular Rydberg atoms interacting with the mode of a high-finesse microwave cavity containing a small coherent field.

DOI
10.1109/eqec.2003.1314240

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Direct investigation of the coherent field evolution is reported. A system of homodyne detection to measure the evolution of the phase, is developed and non trivial effects of the interaction upon the field is found. Initial coherent field is shown to split into two macroscopically different phase components, correlated to the initial value of the dipole operator of the atom. Experimental apparatus uses circular Rydberg atoms interacting with the mode of a high-finesse microwave cavity containing a small coherent field.
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We have observed the Rabi oscillation of circular Rydberg atoms in the vacuum and in small coherent fields stored in a high Q cavity. The signal exhibits discrete Fourier components at frequencies proportional to the square root of successive integers. This provides direct evidence of field quantization in the cavity. The weights of the Fourier components yield the photon number distribution in the field. This investigation of the excited levels of the atom-cavity system reveals nonlinear quantum features at extremely low field strengths.
The simple resonant Rabi oscillation of a two-level system in a single-mode coherent field reveals complex features at the mesoscopic scale, with oscillation collapses and revivals. Using slow circular Rydberg atoms interacting with a superconducting microwave cavity, we explore this phenomenon in an unprecedented range of interaction times and photon numbers. We demonstrate the efficient production of cat states, which are the quantum superposition of coherent components with nearly opposite phases and sizes in the range of few tens of photons. We measure cuts of their Wigner functions revealing their quantum coherence and observe their fast decoherence. This experiment opens promising perspectives for the rapid generation and manipulation of nonclassical states in cavity and circuit quantum electrodynamics.
A single circular Rydberg atom is used to prepare in a high quality superconducting cavity a “Schrödinger cat” state, quantum superposition of two coherent fields with different classical phases. A second atom probes the cavity state after a tunable delay. The decay of the quantum correlations between the two atoms reveals the evolution of the field state from an initial quantum superposition into a mere statistical mixture. The time scale of this decay decreases when the separation between the two components increases. This is the first experimental observation of the dynamics of decoherence, lying at the heart of the quantum measurement process.
The dynamics of quantum decoherence have been experimentally studied for the first time. A single circular Rydberg atom prepares in a high-quality superconducting cavity a ‚Schrödinger cat‘ state of the radiation field. This highly non-classical state is a quantum superposition of two coherent components with different classical phases. A second atom probes the cavity state after a tunable delay. The decay of the quantum correlations between the two atoms reveals the evolution of the initial quantum superposition into a mere statistical mixture. The time scale of this process decreases when the separation beween the two components increases. A simple theoretical model of the experiment is presented. The excellent agreement with the experimental signals confirms in a striking way the decoherence approach.
We perform experiments with Rydberg atoms crossing one at a time a superconducting cavity containing a few microwave photons. The coupling between the atoms and the cavity field is either resonant or dispersive. In the resonant case, quantum Rabi oscillations induced by the vacuum or by a small coherent field are observed. These signals reveals in a striking way the quantization of the field. Quantum Rabi oscillations are also used to prepare Fock states of radiation, to transfer information or to produce entanglement between two successive atoms crossing the cavity. Dispersive atom–field coupling is used to prepare and probe coherent superpositions of field states with different phases (Schrödinger's cat states). The progressive decoherence of these states is observed. These experiments constitute fundamental tests of quantum theory and shed light on the transition from quantum to classical in mesoscopic systems.