Atom-Molecule Dark States in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

We examine dark quantum superposition states of weakly bound Rb2 Feshbach molecules and tightly bound triplet Rb2 molecules in the rovibrational ground state, created by subjecting a pure sample of Feshbach molecules in an optical lattice to a bichromatic Raman laser field. We analyze, both experimentally and theoretically, the creation and dynamics of these dark states. Coherent wavepacket oscillations of deeply bound molecules in lattice sites, as previously observed by Lang et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008, 101, 133005), are suppressed due to laser-induced phase locking of molecular levels. This can be understood as the appearance of a novel multilevel dark state. In addition, the experimental methods developed help to determine important properties of our coupled atom/ laser system.

In this paper, a two-Λ-type five-level system is constructed by using the Zeeman energy level of the lithium atom's hyperfine structure and interacting with two optical fields which have different polarization directions. The quantum coherence effect of the system is studied under the condition of two photon resonance. Firstly, we construct the Hamiltonian of the system under the rotation frame, and get the dark state of the system by solving the eigenvalues and eigenstates of the Hamiltonian. Then, a new coupled representation is constructed by the dark state, and the preparation of the dark state of the five-level system is further studied. Finally, the density matrix motion equations of the five-level system are established, and the numerical solution is solved by program. Through numerical simulation, we give the curve of the signal light absorption intensity with its changed detuning, and from this curve. We can see that there is a transparent window near the zero of the signal light detuning, accompanied by a normal dispersion curve. The position of the transparent window corresponds to the dark state condition for the formation of the system, that is, the system is prepared to the dark state under the two-photon resonance condition, and the atoms in the dark state do not interact with the light field, so the incident signal light appears transparent.

We discuss the exact remote state preparation (RSP) protocol of special ensembles of qubits at multiple locations. Generalization of this protocol for higher dimensional Hilbert space systems for multiparties is also presented. Using the "dark states", for multiparties in higher dimensions as quantum channels, we show several instances of remote state preparation protocol using multiparticle measurement and classical communication. We find that not all dark states can be used for exact remote state preparation, nevertheless any superposition of dark states can be used for exact RSP in a probabilistic manner.

The effect of a dark state on the entanglement properties of the two-mode field from a laser-driven Λ-type three-level atomic system is investigated by taking into account the spontaneously generated coherence (SGC). When the dark state is present, it is found that the entanglement between the two cavity modes can be significantly enhanced compared to the case without the dark state. When the value of SGC is maximal, the dark state population depending on the initial values of the system can affect the entanglement dramatically. Moreover, the effects of a squeezed parameter and Rabi frequency on entanglement evolution are also presented in the presence of a dark state.

Strongly correlated Stokes and anti-Stokes photon pairs (biphotons) exhibiting very large generation rates and spectral brightnesses could be attained at extremely low pump powers and optical depths. This is realized via spontaneous four-wave mixing in cold atoms with enhanced nonlocal (Rydberg) optical nonlinearities and prepared into a dark state with a large population imbalance. The scheme works with all light fields on resonance yet with negligible linear absorption and Raman gain.

Gain without inversion for gamma radiation

We theoretically investigate the damping and trapping forces in a three-dimensional magneto-optical trap (MOT), by numerically solving the optical Bloch equations. We focus on the case where there are dark states because the atom is driven on a ‘type-II’ system where the angular momentum of the excited state, , is less than or equal to that of the ground state, F. For these systems we find that the force in a three-dimensional light field has very different behaviour to its one dimensional counterpart. This differs from the more commonly used ‘type-I’ systems () where the 1D and 3D behaviours are similar. Unlike type-I systems where, for red-detuned light, both Doppler and sub-Doppler forces damp the atomic motion towards zero velocity, in type-II systems in 3D, the Doppler force and polarization gradient force have opposite signs. As a result, the atom is driven towards a non-zero equilibrium velocity, v0, where the two forces cancel. We find that scales linearly with the intensity of the light and is fairly insensitive to the detuning from resonance. We also discover a new magneto-optical force that alters the normal MOT force at low magnetic fields and whose influence is greatest in the type-II systems. We discuss the implications of these findings for the laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of molecules where type-II transitions are unavoidable in realising closed optical cycling transitions.

We study the dynamics of cold rubidium atoms in- teracting with a periodically pulsed standing wave which has a polarization gradient. Due to optical pumping, the atom- ic population is trapped in ground states which periodically evolve to dark states each time the standing wave is switched on. These recurring dark states are coherent superpositions of several momentum states. In the experiment we meas- ure a comb-like momentum distribution with a peak width of 0:3hk. A high contrast is observed when the pulse fre- quency of the standing wave coincides with the recurrence frequency of the dark states.

The recent surge of interest in polaritons has prompted fundamental questions about the role of dark states in strong light-matter coupling phenomena. Here, we systematically vary the relative number of dark states by controlling the number of stacked CdSe nanoplatelets confined in a Fabry-Pérot cavity. We find the emission spectrum to change significantly with an increasing number of nanoplatelets, with a gradual shift of the dominant emission intensity from the lower polariton branch to a manifold of dark states. Through accompanying calculations based on a kinetic model, this shift is rationalized by an entropic trapping of excitations by the dark state manifold, while a weak dark state dispersion due to local disorder explains their nonzero emission. Our results point toward the relevance of the dark state concentration to the optical and dynamical properties of cavity-embedded quantum emitters with ramifications for Bose-Einstein condensate formation, polariton lasing, polariton-based quantum transduction schemes, and polariton chemistry.

A new method to prepare dark squeezed states of the centre-of-mass motion of a trapped ion that interacts with a travelling wave light field is proposed. This method is based on modulation of the frequency of the travelling wave field. In addition, an experiment configuration about its preparation is proposed and discussed.

We studied in details the recombination dynamics and its temperature dependence in epitaxially grown neutral CdSe/ZnSSe quantum dots with additional wide-band gap MgS barriers. Such design allows to preserve a very high quantum yield and track the radiative recombination dynamics up to room temperature. A fast initial decay of ∼0.6 ns followed by a slow decay with a time constant ∼30–50 ns is observed at low temperature T < 50 K. The fast decay gradually disappears with increasing temperature while the slow decay shortens and above 100 K predominantly a single-exponential decay is observed with a time constant ∼1.3 ns, which is weekly temperature dependent up to 300 K. To explain the experimental findings, a two-level model which includes bright and dark exciton states and a temperature dependent spin-flip between them is considered. According to the model, it is a thermal activation of the dark exciton to the bright state and its consequent radiative recombination that results in the long decay tail at low temperature. The doubling of the decay time at high temperatures manifests a thermal equilibrium between the dark and bright excitons.

In optogenetics, designing modules of long or short signaling state lifetime is necessary for control over precise cellular events. A critical parameter for designing artificial or synthetic photoreceptors is the signaling state lifetime of photosensor modules. Design and engineering of biologically relevant artificial photoreceptors is based on signaling mechanisms characteristic of naturally occurring photoreceptors. Therefore identifying residues important for light-dark transition is a definite first step towards rational design of synthetic photoreceptors. A thorough grasp of detailed mechanisms of photo induced signaling process would be immensely helpful in understanding the behaviour of organisms. Herein, we introduce the technique of differential networks. We identify key biological interactions, using light-oxygen-voltage domains of all organisms whose dark and light state crystal structures are simultaneously available. Even though structural differences between dark and light states are subtle (other than the covalent bond formation between flavin chromophore and active site Cysteine), our results successfully capture functionally relevant residues and are in complete agreement with experimental findings from literature. Additionally, using sequence-structure alignments, we predict functional significance of interactions found to be important from network perspective yet awaiting experimental validation. Our approach would not only help in minimizing extensive photo-cycle kinetics procedure but is also helpful in providing first-hand information on the fundamentals of photo-adaptation and rational design of synthetic photoreceptors in optogenetics. devrani.dbs@presiuniv.ac.in or soumen@jcbose.ac.in Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Robust creation and phase-sensitive probing of superposition states via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) with degenerate dark states

We show that an arbitrary system described by two dipole moments exhibits coherent superpositions of internal states that can be completely decoupled from the dissipative interactions (responsible for decoherence) and an external driving laser field. These superpositions, known as dark or trapping states, can be completely stable or can coherently interact with the remaining states. We examine the master equation describing the dissipative evolution of the system and identify conditions for population trapping and also classify processes that can transfer the population to these undriven and nondecaying states. It is shown that coherent transfers are possible only if the two systems are nonidentical, that is the transitions have different frequencies and/or decay rates. In particular, we find that the trapping conditions can involve both coherent and dissipative interactions, and depending on the energy level structure of the system, the population can be trapped in a linear superposition of two or more bare states, a dressed state corresponding to an eigenstate of the system plus external fields or, in some cases, in one of the excited states of the system. A comprehensive analysis is presented of the different processes that are responsible for population trapping, and we illustrate these ideas with three examples of two coupled systems: single V- and $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type three-level atoms and two nonidentical two-level atoms, which are known to exhibit dark states. We show that the effect of population trapping does not necessarily require decoupling of the antisymmetric superposition from the dissipative interactions. We also find that the vacuum-induced coherent coupling between the systems could be easily observed in $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atoms. Our analysis of the population trapping in two nonidentical atoms shows that the atoms can be driven into a maximally entangled state which is completely decoupled from the dissipative interaction.

Quantum dot clusters enable the creation of dark states which preserve electrons or holes in a coherent superposition of dot states for a long time. Various quantum logic devices can be envisioned to arise from the possibility of storing such trapped particles for future release on demand. In this work, we consider a double quantum dot memory device, which enables the preservation of a coherent state to be released as multiple classical bits. Our unique device architecture uses an external gating for storing (writing) the coherent state and for retrieving (reading) the classical bits, in addition to exploiting an internal gating effect for the preservation of the coherent state.