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Optics Express

Quantum to classical transport transition and a decoherence detection method in driven optical lattices

Xiangyu Tong, Xiaoxiao Ma, Xian Zhang, Naichen Zhang, Kaikai Huang, Jianbo Zhang, Xuanhui Lu

Published Apr 21, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Atomic quantum systems such as atomic clocks or qubits with cold atoms in tweezer arrays have attracted enormous interests both in academia and industry. In this work, we report a theoretical study and experimental demonstration of quantum tunneling of atoms in 1D optical lattices with decoherence. In such decoherence process, the expansion of atomic wave packet is suppressed and resonance spectrum is broadened. In this regime, as the decoherence rate L or the modulation time t increases, the evolution of atomic wave packets transitions from coherent tunneling to classical diffusion. We propose a detection method to fast evaluate the degree of decoherence in such systems. Our work benefits the study of decoherence properties of precision measurements based on optical lattice.

DOI
10.1364/oe.559395

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Atomic quantum systems such as atomic clocks or qubits with cold atoms in tweezer arrays have attracted enormous interests both in academia and industry. In this work, we report a theoretical study and experimental demonstration of quantum tunneling of atoms in 1D optical lattices with decoherence. In such decoherence process, the expansion of atomic wave packet is suppressed and resonance spectrum is broadened. In this regime, as the decoherence rate L or the modulation time t increases, the evolution of atomic wave packets transitions from coherent tunneling to classical diffusion. We propose a detection method to fast evaluate the degree of decoherence in such systems. Our work benefits the study of decoherence properties of precision measurements based on optical lattice.
Summary form only given. The investigation of coherent superposition states for atoms interacting with external potentials allows a completely new class of experiments directed towards coherent trapping and guiding of neutral atoms. In addition, the process of decoherence, i.e., the collapse of superposition states, is one of the basic concepts for our understanding of the connection between classical and quantum physics. We study the creation and decay of superpositions of different components of the center-of-mass wavefunction of rubidium atoms in a one-dimensional near-resonant optical lattice. This makes it possible to gain insight into the dependence of decoherence processes on the coupling of the atoms to the light field. We discuss the dependence of the wave packet oscillations and echoes on experimental parameters (potential depth, light intensity and detuning, time delay, size of the shift, etc.). We compare our experimental results with numerical simulations of the echo effect. The observation of this new effect in the coherent wave packet motion of atoms trapped in optical potentials will allow us to selectively study the decoherence process and measure the decoherence time in regimes where this was previously impossible.
We report on the first direct investigation of quantum transport and control of a classically chaotic open system which means a single atom held in an open and depth-tilt-modulated one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice. The area of chaotic region is demonstrated to decrease with the increase of damping of the classical open system. The corresponding non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is constructed, where the quantum decay rate positively correlating to the classical damping is qualitatively revealed. Under high-frequency approximation of the tilt modulation, we obtain a set of analytical solutions with the effective coupling being strengthened by the adjustable decay rate. The analytical and numerical results mean accordantly that we can enhance the tunneling rate to suppress the decoherence by increasing the decay rate to leave the chaotic region. These results could be useful for qubit transport and control based on the classically chaotic open systems.
Quantum-mechanical transport of atoms in an optical lattice in one dimension is described in an exactly solvable model. The atoms are tightly bound and they are sufficiently cooled so that they are restricted only to the lowest Bloch band in a single adiabatic potential. The coherent spreading of an atomic wave packet by tunneling is counteracted by the localizing effect of photon emission that accompanies optical pumping. The time evolution of the quasimomentum distribution, the coherence length, and the spatial width of the atomic state are evaluated analytically. These quantities depend strongly on the statistics of photon emissions.
In this thesis I report on experiments on the quantum dynamics of matter waves in a onedimensional lattice potential. A 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensates is prepared in a one-dimensional waveguide in the lowest band of a superimposed optical lattice potential. The action of a weak lattice potential allows to modify the linear wave dispersion. We realized dispersion management by switching from normal to anomalous dispersion during the evolution. In this way the initial expansion of a wave packet is reversed to a compression and thus the effective spreading can be suppressed. By preparing a BEC at the Brillouin zone edge, we observed bright atomic gap solitons – non-spreading wave packets. They form, if the atom number and the lattice potential depth is tuned such that the effect of the repulsive atomic interaction and the anomalous dispersion cancel. For deep lattice potentials our system is described by a discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation, whose dynamics is determined by the tunneling between adjacent lattice sites and the nonlinear phase evolution. In the main part of this thesis I report on the first experimental observation of nonlinear self-trapping for matter waves. The transition from the diffusive regime, characterized by an continuous expansion of the condensate, to the self-trapping regime is accomplished by increasing the atomic density. Due to the corresponding increase of the repulsive atomic interaction the initial expansion stops and the width of the wave packet remains finite. The comparison with a numerical analysis reveals that the effect is due to an inhibition of the site-to-site tunneling induced by the nonlinear phase evolution.
Optical lattices are periodic light shift potentials that are created by the interference of several laser beams. In this dissertation I investigate the motion of atoms in such potentials. The center-of-mass wave-packet motion is initiated by an application of a sudden shift to the lattice potentials. The resulting oscillations are observed using a photon redistribution technique. We first show that by utilizing a real-time feedback loop and shifting the lattice continuously in response to the wave-packet motion, we can increase, alter or damp this motion using different gains of the feedback loop. We further show that by splitting the wave-packet between two adiabatic potentials of the lattice via quantum projection, we can construct an atom interferometer. We observe interference signal when the two components of the original wave-packet overlap. The behavior of the interference is studied as a function of lattice parameters and a consistent theoretical picture is developed. Further, we study how well-to-well tunneling of atoms and sloshing-type wave-pocket dynamics affect each other. We find that in the regions where the well-to-well tunneling is significant, the sloshing type wave-packet oscillations are suppressed. Sloshing-type motion only occurs if the tunneling is sufficiently suppressed with an applied magnetic field. Finally we describe a new type of optical lattice that is based on two-photon Raman transitions. The basic period of this lattice is reduced by a factor of two, compared with traditional lattices. We also show that Sub-Doppler cooling mechanism is present in this lattice. The dissertation is concluded with the presentation of a new experimental set-up for Bose-Einstein Condensate production, which may in the future be used for the study of BEC dynamics in optical lattices.
We report on the measurement of the time required for a wave packet to tunnel through the potential barriers of an optical lattice. The experiment is carried out by loading adiabatically a Bose-Einstein condensate into a 1D optical lattice. A sudden displacement of the lattice by a few tens of nanometers excites the micromotion of the dipole mode. We then directly observe in momentum space the splitting of the wave packet at the turning points and measure the delay between the reflected and the tunneled packets for various initial displacements. Using this atomic beam splitter twice, we realize a chain of coherent micron-size Mach-Zehnder interferometers at the exit of which we get essentially a wave packet with a negative momentum, a result opposite to the prediction of classical physics.