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AIP conference proceedings

A quantum mechanical model of Rabi oscillations between two interacting harmonic oscillator modes and the interconversion of modes in a Penning trap

Martin Kretzschmar

Published Jan 1, 1999• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

When a Penning trap is operated with an additional quadrupole driving field with a frequency that equals a suitable combination (sum or difference) of the frequencies of the fundamental modes of motion (modified cyclotron, magnetron and axial frequency), then a periodic conversion of the participating modes into each other is observed, strongly resembling the Rabi oscillations in a 2-level atom driven by a laser field tuned to the transition frequency. This investigation attempts to understand on a fundamental level how and why the motion of a classical particle in a macroscopic apparatus can be truely analogous to the oscillations of states of quantum mechanical 2-level systems (2-level atom or magnetic resonance). Ion motion in a Penning trap with an additional quadrupole driving field is described in a quantum mechanical frame work. The Heisenberg equations of motion for the creation and annihilation operators of the interacting oscillators have been explicitly solved, the time development operator of the Schrödinger picture has been determined. The driving field provides for two types of intermode interaction: Type I preserves the total number of excitation quanta present in the two interacting modes, the system oscillates between the modes with a frequency corresponding to the Rabi frequency in two-level systems. Type II preserves the difference of the numbers of excitation quanta present in the two interacting modes, it causes the ion motion to become unbounded. The two types of interaction are associated in a natural way with a SU(2) and a SU(1,1) Lie algebra. The three generators of these algebras form a vector operator that we denote as the Bloch vector operator. The Hilbert space decomposes in a natural way into invariant subspaces, finite dimensional in the case of type I interaction (SU(2)-algebra) and infinite dimensional in the case of type II interaction (SU(1,1)-algebra). The physics of the 2-level atom in the laser field can be described in the 2-dimensional (the lowest nontrivial) sector of the Hilbert space associated with the type I (SU(2)-algebra) interaction. The Bloch vector, well known from quantum optics, is the expectation value of our Bloch operator. On the other hand, the description of ion motion in the Penning trap requires the whole infinite dimensional Hilbert space of our model. Classical ion trajectories are obtained by calculating for the observables corresponding to position and momentum the expectation values with respect to minimum uncertainty coherent oscillator states.

DOI
10.1063/1.57446

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When a Penning trap is operated with an additional quadrupole driving field with a frequency that equals a suitable combination (sum or difference) of the frequencies of the fundamental modes of motion (modified cyclotron, magnetron and axial frequency), then a periodic conversion of the participating modes into each other is observed, strongly resembling the Rabi oscillations in a 2-level atom driven by a laser field tuned to the transition frequency. This investigation attempts to understand on a fundamental level how and why the motion of a classical particle in a macroscopic apparatus can be truely analogous to the oscillations of states of quantum mechanical 2-level systems (2-level atom or magnetic resonance). Ion motion in a Penning trap with an additional quadrupole driving field is described in a quantum mechanical frame work. The Heisenberg equations of motion for the creation and annihilation operators of the interacting oscillators have been explicitly solved, the time development operator of the Schrödinger picture has been determined. The driving field provides for two types of intermode interaction: Type I preserves the total number of excitation quanta present in the two interacting modes, the system oscillates between the modes with a frequency corresponding to the Rabi frequency in two-level systems. Type II preserves the difference of the numbers of excitation quanta present in the two interacting modes, it causes the ion motion to become unbounded. The two types of interaction are associated in a natural way with a SU(2) and a SU(1,1) Lie algebra. The three generators of these algebras form a vector operator that we denote as the Bloch vector operator. The Hilbert space decomposes in a natural way into invariant subspaces, finite dimensional in the case of type I interaction (SU(2)-algebra) and infinite dimensional in the case of type II interaction (SU(1,1)-algebra). The physics of the 2-level atom in the laser field can be described in the 2-dimensional (the lowest nontrivial) sector of the Hilbert space associated with the type I (SU(2)-algebra) interaction. The Bloch vector, well known from quantum optics, is the expectation value of our Bloch operator. On the other hand, the description of ion motion in the Penning trap requires the whole infinite dimensional Hilbert space of our model. Classical ion trajectories are obtained by calculating for the observables corresponding to position and momentum the expectation values with respect to minimum uncertainty coherent oscillator states.
Quantum-mechanical analysis of ion motion in a rotating-radio-frequency (rrf) trap or in a Penning trap with a quadrupole rotating field is carried out. Rrf traps were introduced by Hasegawa and Bollinger [Phys. Rev. A 72, 043404 (2005)]. The classical motion of a single ion in this trap is described by only trigonometric functions, whereas in the conventional linear radio-frequency (rf) traps it is by the Mathieu functions. Because of the simple classical motion in the rrf trap, it is expected that the quantum-mechanical analysis of the rrf traps is also simple compared to that of the linear rf traps. The analysis of Penning traps with a quadrupole rotating field is also possible in a way similar to the rrf traps. As a result, the Hamiltonian in these traps is the same as the two-dimensional harmonic oscillator, and energy levels and wave functions are derived as exact results. In these traps, it is found that one of the vibrational modes in the rotating frame can have negative energy levels, which means that the zero-quantum-number state (``ground'' state) is the highest energy state.
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.
We theoretically investigate quantum Rabi oscillations in a system consisting of a two-level atom (qubit) strongly coupled to a one-dimensional open waveguide. In contrast to conventional cavity quantum electrodynamics, the qubit interacts with a continuum of propagating modes, which gives rise to fundamentally different dynamical behavior. Within the rotating-wave approximation, we express the multimode Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian in terms of collective bosonic operators and show that the system possesses two integrals of motion, enabling an exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian in the single-excitation subspace. We show that for a strongly interacting qubit-photon system, the dynamics are captured by a reduced two-level model. In this framework, each level is defined as the product of the atomic excited state and a specific field mode, which takes the form of a multiphoton Fock-like state. In this picture, the Rabi oscillations represent a collective phenomenon corresponding to oscillations between multiphoton states differing by a single photon. We then extend our analysis to multiphoton processes in which the initial field is a coherent state with a continuous spectrum. In this case, the Rabi frequency is shown to be sensitive to the spectral profile of the function that generates the coherent state.
We consider here the exact solution of a nonrelativistic quantum system composed of a two-level atom interacting with a laser with arbitrary large frequency and intensity. We use the analogy of this system and a ℏ/2-spin particle interacting with a time-dependent magnetic field. A systematic use of the dynamical symmetry underlying the physical system is made. Actually the Hamiltonian is a Hermitian element of the SU(2) Lie Algebra. The exact Temporal Evolution Operator in terms of a Generalized Displacement Operator of the group is constructed. It is possible to develop a nonperturbative method that allows us to solve exactly the model for any value of the relevant frequencies (Rabi, Laser, and Atom Frequencies) and in so doing the usual Rotating Wave and Small Interaction approximations are unnecessary. The properties of periodicity of this model and the phenomenon of harmonic generation are considered by using Floquet Analysis. We find that in addition to the so far well-known spectrum composed by odd harmonics, this model generates another type of noninteger harmonics whose frequencies and amplitudes are determined for any value of the relevant parameters of the system.
A correspondence is established between measure-preserving, ergodic dynamics of a classical harmonic oscillator and a quantum mechanical gauge theory on two-dimensional Minkowski space. This correspondence is realized through an isometric embedding of the L2(μ) space on the circle associated with the oscillator’s invariant measure, μ, into a Hilbert space H of sections of a C-line bundle over Minkowski space. This bundle is equipped with a covariant derivative induced from an SO+(1, 1) gauge field on the corresponding inertial frame bundle, satisfying the Yang–Mills equations. Under this embedding, the Hamiltonian operator of a Lorentz-invariant quantum system, constructed as a geometrical Laplace-type operator on bundle sections, pulls back to the generator of the unitary group of Koopman operators governing the evolution of classical observables of the harmonic oscillator, with Koopman eigenfunctions of zero, positive, and negative eigenfrequencies corresponding to quantum eigenstates of zero (“vacuum”), positive (“matter”), and negative (“antimatter”) energies. The embedding also induces a pair of operators acting on classical observables of the harmonic oscillator, exhibiting canonical position–momentum commutation relationships. These operators have the structure of order-1/2 fractional derivatives and therefore display a form of non-locality. In a second part of this work, we study a quantum mechanical representation of the classical harmonic oscillator using a one-parameter family of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, K^τ, associated with the time-τ transition kernel of a fractional diffusion on the circle. As shown in recent work, these spaces are unital Banach *-algebras of functions. It is found that the evolution of classical observables in these spaces takes place via a strongly continuous, unitary Koopman evolution group, which exhibits a stronger form of classical–quantum consistency than the L2(μ) case. Specifically, for every real-valued classical observable in K^τ, there exists a quantum mechanical observable, whose expectation value is consistent with classical function evaluation. This allows for a description of classical state space dynamics, classical statistics, and quantum statistics of the harmonic oscillator within a unified framework.