We propose two schemes for cooling bosonic and fermionic atoms that are trapped in a deep optical lattice. The first scheme is a quantum algorithm based on particle number filtering and state dependent lattice shifts. The second protocol alternates filtering with a redistribution of particles by means of quantum tunnelling. We provide a complete theoretical analysis of both schemes and characterize the cooling efficiency in terms of the entropy. Our schemes do not require addressing of single lattice sites and use a novel method, which is based on coherent laser control, to perform very fast filtering.
We propose two schemes for cooling bosonic and fermionic atoms that are trapped in a deep optical lattice. The first scheme is a quantum algorithm based on particle number filtering and state dependent lattice shifts. The second protocol alternates filtering with a redistribution of particles by means of quantum tunnelling. We provide a complete theoretical analysis of both schemes and characterize the cooling efficiency in terms of the entropy. Our schemes do not require addressing of single lattice sites and use a novel method, which is based on coherent laser control, to perform very fast filtering.
We propose and analyse several schemes for cooling bosonic and fermionic atoms in an optical lattice potential close to the ground state of the no-tunnelling regime. Some of the protocols rely on the concept of algorithmic cooling, which combines occupation number filtering with ideas from ensemble quantum computation. We also design algorithms that create an ensemble of defect-free quantum registers. We study the efficiency of our protocols for realistic temperatures and in the presence of a harmonic confinement. We also propose an incoherent physical implementation of filtering which can be operated in a continuous way.
Optical lattices are periodic arrangements of laser cooled atoms trapped in potentials created by the interference of multiple laser beams. In this dissertation, we describe a series of experiments performed using optical lattices that exploit the coherence of atoms and we also look at new ways to cool the atoms. With a sudden shift of the optical lattice, atomic wavepackets can be created that evolve much like a classical particle. Using a photon redistribution technique, we have characterized the oscillation of wavepackets in the anharmonic potential wells. Atoms will quantum mechanically tunnel between lattice sites with a sufficiently shallow potential. Due to the structure of the optical lattices that are used, while the atom is tunneling, its internal angular momentum state must change. We use this change to detect and characterize the tunneling. The change in internal state leads to the formation of a new potential that acts on the atom, which is known as a gauge potential, which does not depend on the light intensity, but depends only on the geometry of the lattice. We have for the first time measured and characterized this gauge potential. Finally, by randomly modulating the lattice potential, we have demonstrated that tunneling can be suppressed. We have shown that an enhancement of the Sisyphus cooling process, which localizes atoms in the wells of an optical lattice, is possible using a bichromatic standing wave. A time of flight technique is used to verify the cooling improvement. We combine the techniques developed in these experiments and apply them to the cooling of the trapped atoms using a feedback mechanism, which is analogous to the well known technique of stochastic cooling in the field of beam physics. Lastly, we have laid the theoretical basis for using the ponderomotive force to create optical lattices for laser cooled Rydberg atoms. Rydberg atoms are attractive because of their many extreme properties, and the ability to trap Rydberg atoms into lattice sites will increase the range of experiments and measurements that can be made with them.
Summary form only given. Atoms in an optical lattice, though very slow, perform a slight random motion that reflects the non-zero temperature of the trapped atoms. We are proposing a way of reducing such random motion using real-time feedback. The method is related to the stochastic cooling used to transversely cool particle beams. Another stochastic cooling method for laser-cooled atoms has been proposed in "Stochastic cooling of atoms using lasers," see Phys. Rev. A, vol. 58, p. 4757 (1998). Our scheme involves a measurement of the coherent redistribution of photons between different laser beams of the optical lattice.
We propose a cooling scheme for realizing single-photon sideband cooling on particles trapped in a statedependent optical potential.We develop a master rate equation from an ab initio model and find that in experimentally feasible conditions it is possible to reduce the average occupation number of the vibrational levels in one dimension by more than 90% by applying a frequency sweep on the cooling laser that sequentially cools all the motional states.Notably, this cooling scheme works also when a particle experiences a deeper trap in its internal ground state than in its excited state, a condition for which conventional single-photon sideband cooling does not work.In our analysis, we consider two cases: a two-level particle confined in an optical tweezer, and Li atoms confined in an optical lattice, and we find conditions for efficient cooling in both cases.The results from the model are confirmed by a full quantum Monte Carlo simulation of the system Hamiltonian.Our findings provide an alternative cooling scheme that can be applied in principle to any particle, e.g., atoms, molecules, or ions, confined in a state-dependent optical potential.
A complete laser cooling setup was built, with focus on threedimensional near-resonant optical lattices for cesium. These consist of regularly ordered micropotentials, created by the interference of four laser beams. One key feature of optical lattices is an inherent ”Sisyphus cooling” process. It efficiently extracts kinetic energy from the atoms, leading to equilibrium temperatures of a few µK. The corresponding kinetic energy is lower than the depth of the potential wells, so that atoms can be trapped. We performed detailed studies of the cooling processes in optical lattices by using the time-of-flight and absorption-imaging techniques. We investigated the dependence of the equilibrium temperature on the optical lattice parameters, such as detuning, optical potential and lattice geometry. The presence of neighbouring transitions in the cesium hyperfine level structure was used to break symmetries in order to identify, which role “red” and “blue” transitions play in the cooling. We also examined the limits for the cooling process in optical lattices, and the possible difference in steady-state velocity distributions for different directions. Moreover, in collaboration with ´Ecole Normale Sup´erieure in Paris, numerical simulations were performed in order to get more insight in the cooling dynamics of optical lattices. Optical lattices can keep atoms almost perfectly isolated from the environment and have therefore been suggested as a platform for a host of possible experiments aimed at coherent quantum manipulations, such as spin-squeezing and the implementation of quantum logic-gates. We developed a novel way to trap two different cesium ground states in two distinct, interpenetrating optical lattices, and to change the distance between sites of one lattice relative to sites of the other lattice. This is a first step towards the implementation of quantum simulation schemes in optical lattices.
The possible deep laser cooling of 24 Mg atoms in a deep optical lattice in the presence of an additional pumping field resonant to the narrow 3 s 3 s 1 S 0 → 3 s 3 p 3 P 1 (λ = 457 nm) optical transition is studied. Two quantum models of the laser cooling of atoms in the optical trap are compared. One is based on the direct numerical solution to the kinetic quantum equation for an atomic density matrix; it considers both optical pumping and quantum recoil effects during interaction between the atoms and field photons. The second, simplified model is based on decomposing the states of the atoms over the levels of vibration in the optical trap and analyzing the evolution of these states. The comparison allows derivation of optical field parameters (pumping field intensity and detuning) that ensure cooling of the atoms to minimal energies. The conditions for fast laser cooling in an optical trap are found.