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Physical Review A

Coherence and chaos in a quantum optical system

Gerard J Milburn

Published Jun 1, 1990• 27 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A nonlinear, kicked quantum optical system, which classically exhibits regions of regular and chaotic motion, is proposed as a possible experimental test of quantum chaos. The mean photon number is shown to undergo regular collapse and revival in the regular region of phase space and irregular revivals in the chaotic region.
DOI
10.1103/physreva.41.6567

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Journal of Optics B Quantum and Semiclassical Optics•Apr 1, 2003•39 citations
We consider a parametric amplifier driven by a periodically pulsed pump field inside a cavity containing a Kerr nonlinearity. The dynamics of the device is modeled as a kicked nonlinear system. The pulsed parametric amplifier constitutes the kick. In between kicks the dynamics is determined by the Kerr nonlinearity and damping. In the absence of damping, a classical description of the device exhibits a rich phase-space structure including fixed points of multiple period and chaos. We contrast the classical behavior of the mean intensity with that predicted by quantum dynamics. The mean photon number inside the cavity is shown to undergo regular collapse and revival in the regular region of the phase space and irregular revivals in the chaotic region. When damping is included, the quantum recurrences are rapidly suppressed, and the classical behavior is restored. In this case a stable steady state is possible. The damping represents the effect of photon-number measurements on the system. We also discuss the photon statistics in the steady state.
We show how a nonlinear chaotic system, the parametrically kicked nonlinear oscillator, may be realized in the dynamics of a trapped, laser-cooled ion, interacting with a sequence of standing-wave pulses. Unlike the original optical scheme [G. J. Milburn and C. A. Holmes, Phys. Rev. A 44, 4704 (1991)], the trapped ion enables strongly quantum dynamics with minimal dissipation. This should permit an experimental test of one of the quantum signatures of chaos: irregular collapse and revival dynamics of the average vibrational energy.
We analyze the interplay of chaos, entanglement, and decoherence in a system of qubits whose collective behavior is that of a quantum kicked top. The dynamical entanglement between a single qubit and the rest can be calculated from the mean of the collective spin operators. This allows the possibility of efficiently measuring entanglement dynamics in an experimental setting. We consider a deeply quantum regime and show that signatures of chaos are present in the dynamical entanglement for parameters accessible in an experiment that we propose using cold atoms. The evolution of the entanglement depends on the support of the initial state on regular versus chaotic Floquet eigenstates, whose phase-space distributions are concentrated on the corresponding regular or chaotic eigenstructures. We include the effect of decoherence via a realistic model and show that the signatures of chaos in the entanglement dynamics persist in the presence of decoherence. In addition, the classical chaos affects the decoherence rate itself.
Cold atoms in optical potentials provide an ideal test bed to explore quantum nonlinear dynamics. Atoms are prepared in a magneto-optic trap or as a dilute Bose–Einstein condensate and subjected to a far detuned optical standing wave that is modulated. They exhibit a wide range of dynamics, some of which can be explained by classical theory while other aspects show the underlying quantum nature of the system. The atoms have a mixed phase space containing regions of regular motion which appear as distinct peaks in the atomic momentum distribution embedded in a sea of chaos. The action of the atoms is of the order of Planck’s constant, making quantum effects significant. This tutorial presents a detailed description of experiments measuring the evolution of atoms in time-dependent optical potentials. Experimental methods are developed providing means for the observation and selective loading of regions of regular motion. The dependence of the atomic dynamics on the system parameters is explored and distinct changes in the atomic momentum distribution are observed which are explained by the applicable quantum and classical theory. The observation of a bifurcation sequence is reported and explained using classical perturbation theory. Experimental methods for the accurate control of the momentum of an ensemble of atoms are developed. They use phase space resonances and chaotic transients providing novel ensemble atomic beamsplitters. The divergence between quantum and classical nonlinear dynamics is manifest in the experimental observation of dynamical tunnelling. It involves no potential barrier. However a constant of motion other than energy still forbids classically this quantum allowed motion. Atoms coherently tunnel back and forth between their initial state of oscillatory motion and the state 180 ° out of phase with the initial state.