Control in classical limit: Robustness against decoherence in an optical lattice

Jae Hoon Lee, Enrique Montaño, Ivan Deutsch +1 more

Michael Spanner, Ignacio Franco, Paul W. Brumer

The quantum-to-classical transition of a symmetry-breaking coherent control scenario is computationally demonstrated in an optical lattice arrangement. Control is shown to survive in the classical limit and, for small effective $\ensuremath{\hbar}$, to be comparable in magnitude to quantum control. Moderate decoherence is seen to eliminate structure from the momentum space distribution, but not to cause loss of control. The proposed scenario is designed so as to be demonstrable experimentally in a moving or shaken one-dimensional optical lattice.

Samansa Maneshi, J. F. Kanem, Chao Zhuang +2 more

Ivan Deutsch, Poul Jessen

We study the means of preparing and coherently manipulating atomic wave packets in optical lattices, with particular emphasis on alkali-metal atoms in the far-detuned limit. We derive a general, basis-independent expression for the lattice potential operator, and show that its off-diagonal elements can be tailored to couple the vibrational manifolds of separate magnetic sublevels. Using these couplings one can evolve the state of a trapped atom in a quantum coherent fashion, and prepare pure quantum states by resolved-sideband Raman cooling. We explore the use of atoms bound in optical lattices to study quantum tunneling and the generation of macroscopic superposition states in a double-well potential. Far-off-resonance optical potentials lend themselves particularly well to reservoir engineering via well-controlled fluctuations in the potential, making the atom-lattice system attractive for the study of decoherence and the connection between classical and quantum physics.

H. L. Haroutyunyan, Gerard Nienhuis

Narayan Ganesan