We introduce and implement an interferometric technique based on chirped femtosecond laser pulses and nonlinear optics. The interference manifests as a high-visibility (> 85%) phase-insensitive dip in the intensity of an optical beam when the two interferometer arms are equal to within the coherence length of the light. This signature is unique in classical interferometry, but is a direct analogue to Hong-Ou-Mandel quantum interference. Our technique exhibits all the metrological advantages of the quantum interferometer, but with signals at least 10^7 times greater. In particular we demonstrate enhanced resolution, robustness against loss, and automatic dispersion cancellation. Our interferometer offers significant advantages over previous technologies, both quantum and classical, in precision time delay measurements and biomedical imaging.
Chirped-pulse interferometry is a new interferometric technique encapsulating the advantages of the quantum Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer without the drawbacks of using entangled photons. Both interferometers can exhibit even-order dispersion cancellation which allows high resolution optical delay measurements even in thick optical samples. In the present work, we show that finite frequency correlations in chirped-pulse interferometry and Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry limit the degree of dispersion cancellation. Our results are important considerations in designing practical devices based on t…
We present analytical solutions for the problem of a two-level atom driven by a class of chirped pulses. The solutions are given in terms of Heun functions. Using appropriate chirping parameters an enhancement of four-orders of magnitudes in the population transfer is obtained.
We investigate the response of a harmonically confined mirror to an optical pulse in cavity optomechanics. We show that when the pulsed coupling strength takes the form of a chirped pulse, thermal fluctuations of the mirror can be significantly transferred to the cavity field. In addition, the frequency modulation of the pulse could enable a better cooling performance by suppressing the sensitivity of the dependence of detuning and pulse areas. Using numerical investigations, we find that the pulsed-cooling is mainly limited by the cavity-field decay rate.
We propose three implementations of the Gauss sum factorization schemes discussed in part I of this series: (i) a two-photon transition in a multi-level ladder system induced by a chirped laser pulse, (ii) a chirped one-photon transition in a two-level atom with a periodically modulated excited state, and (iii) a linearly chirped one-photon transition driven by a sequence of ultrashort pulses. For each of these quantum systems we show that the excitation probability amplitude is given by an appropriate Gauss sum. We provide rules how to encode the number N to be factored in our system and how …
We consider the simultaneous propagation of a pair of Raman-resonant, frequency-modulated (chirped) laser pulses in an optically thick medium, modeled by an ensemble of $Λ$-atoms. A self-organization ('matching`) effect is shown for the chirped pulse pair, which leads to a quasi-lossless propagation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a well-defined coherent superposition of the atomic ground states and, correspondingly, a coherence is robustly created in the medium that can be controlled by amplitudes of the laser pulses. The proposed scheme can be applied to substantially increase the efficien…
Swept-frequency pulses have found applications in a wide range of areas including spectroscopic techniques where efficient control of spins is required. For many of these applications, a good understanding of the evolution of spin systems during these pulses plays a vital role, not only in describing the mechanism of techniques, but also in enabling new methodologies. In magnetic resonance spectroscopy, broadband inversion, refocusing, and excitation using these pulses are among the most used applications in NMR, ESR, MRI, and $in$ $vivo$ MRS. In the present survey, a general expression for ch…
Photon-echo based optical quantum memory schemes often employ intermediate steps to transform optical coherences to spin coherences for longer storage times. We analyze a scheme that uses three identical chirped control pulses for coherence rephasing in an inhomogeneously broadened ensemble of three-level $Λ$-systems. The pulses induce a cyclic permutation of the atomic populations in the adiabatic regime. Optical coherences created by a signal pulse are stored as spin coherences at an intermediate time interval, and are rephased for echo emission when the ensemble is returned to the initial s…
We propose a scheme for sensing of an oscillating field in systems with large inhomogeneous broadening and driving field variation by applying sequences of phased, adiabatic, chirped pulses. The latter act as a double filter for dynamical decoupling, where the adiabatic changes of the mixing angle during the pulses rectify the signal and partially remove frequency noise. The sudden changes between the pulses act as instantaneous $π$ pulses in the adiabatic basis for additional noise suppression. We also use the pulses' phases to correct for other errors, e.g., due to non-adiabatic couplings. O…
We study the effects of arbitrary laser pulse excitations on quantum correlation, entanglement and the role of quantum noise. The transient quantities are computed exactly using a method that provides exact solutions of the Langevin field operators for photon pairs produced by a double Raman atom driven by laser pulses. Short pulses with appropriate chirping, delay and/or detuning can generate broadband photon pairs and yield results that provide insights on how to generate very large nonclassical correlation. We find that short pulses are not favorable for entanglement. The quantity was previ…
As in conventional computing, key attributes of quantum memories are high storage density and, crucially, random access, or the ability to read from or write to an arbitrarily chosen register. However, achieving such random access with quantum memories in a dense, hardware-efficient manner remains a challenge, for example requiring dedicated cavities per qubit or pulsed field gradients. Here we introduce a protocol using chirped pulses to encode qubits within an ensemble of quantum two-level systems, offering both random access and naturally supporting dynamical decoupling to enhance the memor…
Open Quantum Systems Driven by Chirped Pulses: Quantized versus Semiclassical Fields and the Validity of the Rotating-Wave Approximation
Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学）；Technische Universität Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学）；Zhejiang University of Science and Technology（浙江科技学院）；Hangzhou Dianzi University（杭州电子科技大学）
Weak value amplification is a classical phenomenon that can enhance the sensitivity of a measurement through clever use of interference. The most well-known paradigm of weak value amplification makes use of a Gaussian pulse, which is typical of pulsed laser systems. In this Letter we show that chirped pulses have a great advantage over Gaussians at detecting frequency shifts thanks to the large phase space area that they cover. As an example, we show that within the typical operative parameters of a radar, we can achieve two orders of magnitude amplification of small frequency shifts \emph{on …
It is well known that area pulses make Rabi oscillation and chirped pulses in the adiabatic interaction regime induce complete population inversion of a two-state system. Here we show that chirped zero-area pulses could engineer an interplay between the adiabatic evolution and Rabi-like oscillations. In a proof-of-principle experiment utilizing spectral chirping of femtosecond laser pulses with a resonant spectral hole, we demonstrate that the chirped zero-area pulses could induce, for example, complete population inversion and return of the cold rubidium atom two-state system. Experimental re…
Inhomogeneous broadening of energy levels is one of the principal limiting factors for achieving "slow" or "stationary" light in solid state media by means of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), a quantum version of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP). Stark-shift-chirped rapid-adiabatic-passage (SCRAP) has been shown to be far less sensitive to inhomogeneous broadening than STIRAP, a population transfer technique to which it is closely related. We further optimise the pulses used in SCRAP to be even less sensitive to inhomogeneous broadening in a lambda-type three-level sy…
We analyze excitation of two ground state atoms to a double Rydberg state by a two-photon chirped optical pulse in the regime of adiabatic rapid passage. For intermediate Rydberg-Rydberg interaction strengths, relevant for atoms separated by $\sim$ten $μ$m, adiabatic excitation can be achieved at experimentally feasible Rabi frequencies and chirp rates of the pulses, resulting in high transfer efficiencies. We also study the adiabatic transfer between ground and Rydberg states as a means to realize a controlled phase gate between atomic qubits.
A chirped-pulse quantum control scheme applicable to Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering spectroscopy, named as C-CARS, is presented aimed at maximizing the vibrational coherence in molecules. It implies chirping of three incoming pulses in the four-wave mixing process of CARS, the pump, the Stokes and the probe, to fulfil the conditions of adiabatic passage. The scheme is derived in the framework of rotating wave approximation and adiabatic elimination of excited state manifold simplifying the four-level model system into a ``super-effective'' two level system. The robustness, spectral sele…
This theoretical paper investigates the formation of ground state molecules from ultracold cesium atoms in a two-color scheme. Following previous work on photoassociation with chirped picosecond pulses [Luc-Koenig et al., Phys. Rev. A {\bf 70}, 033414 (2004)], we investigate stabilization by a second (dump) pulse. By appropriately choosing the dump pulse parameters and time delay with respect to the photoassociation pulse, we show that a large number of deeply bound molecules are created in the ground triplet state. We discuss (i) broad-bandwidth dump pulses which maximize the probability to f…
In this paper, the scheme of quantum computing based on Stark chirped rapid adiabatic passage (SCRAP) technique [L. F. Wei et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 113601 (2008)] is extensively applied to implement the quantum-state manipulations in the flux-biased Josephson phase qubits. The broken-parity symmetries of bound states in flux-biased Josephson junctions are utilized to conveniently generate the desirable Stark-shifts. Then, assisted by various transition pulses universal quantum logic gates as well as arbitrary quantum-state preparations could be implemented. Compared with the usual PI-puls…
Multi-frequency Raman generation is a promising method of producing ultrashort laser pulses with high intensities and visible wavelength frequencies. In experimental realizations of multi-frequency Raman generation the Raman order peaks display several behaviours that are not explained by the current theory. We derive an analytic and perturbative expression for the spectrum radiated by a Raman medium excited by multiple Gaussian laser pulses and show that it qualitatively agrees with experimental observations.
We propose and demonstrate a robust control scheme by ultrafast nonadiabatic chirped laser pulse, designed for targeting coherent superpositions of two-level systems. Robustness against power fluctuation is proved by our numerical study and a proof-of-principle experiment performed with femtosecond laser interaction on cold atoms. They exhibit for the final driven dynamics a cusp on the Bloch sphere, corresponding to a zero curvature of fidelity. This solution is particularly simple and thus applicable to a wide range of potential applications.
A semiclassical, four-level model of a nanosecond, chirped pulse interacting with all optically accessible hyperfine states in the ultracold Rb atom is analyzed aiming at population inversion within $5S_{1/2}$ electronic state. The nature of two-photon adiabatic passage performed by such a single pulse having a bandwidth smaller than the hyperfine splitting of $5S_{1/2}$ state is investigated in the framework of the dressed state picture. It is shown that two dressed states are involved in the adiabatic dynamics of population inversion. The excited state manifold appeared to play an important …
We report an ultrafast and efficient way to create the maximum coherence between the two lower states in a -like atomic systems, driven by two nonlinearly chirped few-cycle pulses. The phenomenon of coherent population trapping and electromagnetically induced population transfer are investigated by solving the appropriate density matrix equations without invoking the rotating wave approximation. The robustness of the scheme for maximum coherence against the variation of the laser parameters are tested numerically. We also demonstrate that the proposed scheme could be used to obtain complete po…
Entangled states are crucial for modern quantum enabled technology which makes their creation key for future developments. In this paper, a robust quantum control methodology is presented to create entangled states of two typical classes, the W and the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ). It was developed from the analysis of a chain of alkali atoms $^{87}Rb $ interaction with laser pulses, which lead to the two-photon transitions from the ground to the Rydberg states with a predetermined magnetic quantum number. The methodology is based on the mechanism of two-photon adiabatic passage using ove…
The recent developments of high intensity ultra-short laser pulses have raised the hopes of observing Schwinger vacuum pair production which is one of the important non-perturbative phenomena in Quantum electrodynamics (QED). The quantitative analysis of realistic high intensity laser pulses is vital for understanding the effect of the field parameters on the momentum spectrum of the produced particles. In this study, we analyze chirped laser pulses with a sub-cycle structure, and investigate the effects of the chirp parameter on the momentum spectrum of the produced particles. The combined ef…
We implement a 4-level semiclassical model of a single pulse interacting with the hyperfine structure in ultracold rubidium aimed at control of population dynamics and quantum state preparation. We discuss a method based on pulse chirping to achieve population inversion between hyperfine states of the 5S shell. The results may prove useful for quantum operations with ultracold atoms.
Pulsed excitation of broad spectra requires very high field strengths if monochromatic pulses are used. If the corresponding high power is not available or not desirable, the pulses can be replaced by suitable low-power pulses that distribute the power over a wider bandwidth. As a simple case, we use microwave pulses with a linear frequency chirp. We use these pulses to excite spectra of single NV-centers in a Ramsey experiment. Compared to the conventional Ramsey experiment, our approach increases the bandwidth by at least an order of magnitude. Compared to the conventional ODMR experiment, t…
We propose to use chirped pulses propagating near a bandgap to remotely address quantum emitters. We introduce a particular family of chirped pulses that dynamically self-compress to sub-wavelength spot sizes during their evolution in a medium with a quadratic dispersion relation. We analytically describe how the compression distance and width of the pulse can be tuned through its initial parameters. We show that the interaction of such pulses with a quantum emitter is highly sensitive to its position due to effective Landau-Zener processes induced by the pulse chirping. Our results propose pu…
We consider a nanostructure consisting of a semiconductor quantum dot coupled to a metal nanoparticle, and show with numerical simulations that the exciton state of the quantum dot can be robustly generated from the ground state even for small interparticle distances, using conventional chirped pulses with Gaussian and hyperbolic secant envelopes. The asymmetry observed in the final exciton population with respect to the chirp sign of the applied pulses is explained using the nonlinear density matrix equations describing the system, and is attributed to the real part of the parameter emerging …
We show here that due to non-adiabatic couplings in decaying systems applying the same time-dependent protocol in the forward and reverse direction to the same mixed initial state leads to different final pure states. In particular, in laser driven molecular systems applying a specifically chosen positively chirped laser pulse or an equivalent negatively chirped laser pulse yields entirely different final vibrational states. This phenomenon occurs when the laser frequency and intensity are slowly varied around an exceptional point (EP) in the laser intensity and frequency parameter space where…
We report and propose a simple scheme to achieve the ultrafast and selective population transfer in four-level atoms by utilizing a single frequency chirped few-cycle pulse. It is demonstrated that the almost complete population may be transferred to the preselected state of atoms just by manipulating the so called chirp offset parameter. The robustness of the scheme against the variation of laser pulse parameters is also investigated. The proposed scheme may also be useful for the selective population transfer in molecules.
A fiber-integrated spectrometer for single-photon pulses outside the telecommunications wavelength range based upon frequency-to-time mapping, implemented by chromatic group delay dispersion (GDD), and precise temporally-resolved single-photon counting, is presented. A chirped fiber Bragg grating provides low-loss GDD, mapping the frequency distribution of an input pulse onto the temporal envelope of the output pulse. Time-resolved detection with fast single-photon-counting modules enables monitoring of a wavelength range from 825 nm to 835 nm with nearly uniform efficiency at 55 pm resolution…
We show how to emulate a conventional pump-probe scheme using a single frequency-chirped ultrashort UV pulse to obtain a time-resolved image of molecular ultrafast dynamics. The chirp introduces a spectral phase in time that encodes the delay between the pump and the probe frequencies contained in the pulse. By comparing the results of full dimensional ab initio calculations for the H$^+_2$ molecule with those of a simple sequential model, we demonstrate that, by tuning the chirp parameter, two-photon energy-differential ionization probabilities directly map the wave packet dynamics generated …
We report a study on the optical dipole force in a ladder like three level atomic systems in the context of coherent population transfer with the chirped few-cycle-pulse laser fields. The phenomenon of coherent population transfer is investigated by numerically solving the appropriate density matrix equations beyond the rotating wave approximation. On the other hand, optical dipole force is calculated by numerically solving the force equation and density matrix equations self-consistently. By analysing the centre-of-mass motion, it is shown that the optical dipole force with chirped pulses may…
We have simulated the time evolution of the photon number distribution in a semiconductor quantum dot-microcavity system driven by chirped laser pulses and compare with unchirped results. When phonon interactions with the dot are disregarded - thus corresponding to the limit of atomic cavity systems - chirped pulses generate photon number distributions that change their shape drastically in the course of time. Phonons have a strong and qualitative impact on the photon statistics. The asymmetry between phonon absorption and emission destroys the symmetry of the photon distributions obtained for…
Excitation of a semiconductor quantum dot with a chirped laser pulse allows excitons to be created by rapid adiabatic passage. In quantum dots this process can be greatly hindered by the coupling to phonons. Here we add a high chirp rate to ultra-short laser pulses and use these pulses to excite a single quantum dot. We demonstrate that we enter a regime where the exciton-phonon coupling is effective for small pulse areas, while for higher pulse areas a decoupling of the exciton from the phonons occurs. We thus discover a reappearance of rapid adiabatic passage, in analogy to the predicted rea…
We observed vanishing of the transition dipole moment, interrupting vibrational ladder climbing (VLC) in molecular systems. We clarified the mechanism of this phenomenon and present a method to use an additional chirped pulse to preserve the VLC. To show the effectiveness of our method, we conducted wavepacket dynamics simulations for LiH dissociations with chirped pulses. The results indicate that the efficiency of LiH dissociation is significantly improved by our method compared to conventional methods. We also revealed the quantum interference effect behind the excitation process of VLC.
For a scalable photonic device producing entangled photons, it is desirable to have multiple quantum emitters in an ensemble that can be collectively excited, despite their spectral variability. For quantum dots, Rabi rotation, the most popular method for resonant excitation, cannot assure a universal, highly efficient excited state preparation, because of its sensitivity to the excitation parameters. In contrast, Adiabatic Rapid Passage (ARP), relying on chirped optical pulses, is immune to quantum dot spectral inhomogeneity. Here, we advocate the robustness of ARP for simultaneous excitation…
We present a new approach to engineering broadband sources of entangled photon pairs for quantum interferometry. The source is based on quasi-phase-matched spontaneous parametric down conversion in a titanium diffused periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide with a strongly-chirped poling period. The proposed non-standard asymmetric poling mitigates phase distortions associated with the process of chirping. Asymmetric poling significantly broadens the entangled source bandwidth while preserving high visibility quantum interferometric sensing.
Ultracold atomic gases have been used extensively in recent years to realize textbook examples of condensed matter phenomena. Recently, phase transitions to ordered structures have been predicted for gases of highly excited, 'frozen' Rydberg atoms. Such Rydberg crystals are a model for dilute metallic solids with tunable lattice parameters, and provide access to a wide variety of fundamental phenomena. We investigate theoretically how such structures can be created in four distinct cold atomic systems, by using tailored laser-excitation in the presence of strong Rydberg-Rydberg interactions. W…
We present a joint experimental and theoretical study on strong-field photo-ionization of sodium atoms using chirped femtosecond laser pulses. By tuning the chirp parameter, selectivity among the population in the highly excited states 5p, 6p, 7p and 5f, 6f is achieved. Different excitation pathways enabling control are identified by simultaneous ionization and measurement of photoelectron angular distributions employing the velocity map imaging technique. Free electron wave packets at an energy of around 1 eV are observed. These photoelectrons originate from two channels. The predominant 2+1+…
A scheme is analyzed for effcient generation of vacuum ultraviolet radiation through four-wave mixing processes assisted by the technique of Stark-chirped rapid adiabatic passage. These opportunities are associated with pulse excitation of laddertype short-wavelength two-photon atomic or molecular transitions so that relaxation processes can be neglected. In this three-laser technique, a delayed-pulse of strong oR-resonant infrared radiation sweeps the laser-induced Stark-shift of a two-photon transition in a such way that facilitates robust maximum two-photon coherence induced by the first ul…
The chirped-pulse interaction in the adiabatic coupling regime induces cyclic permutations of the energy states of a three-level system in the $V$-type configuration, which process is known as the three-level chirped rapid adiabatic passage. Here we show that a spectral hole in a chirped pulse can turn on and off one of the two adiabatic crossing points of this process, reducing the system to an effective two-level system. The given hybrid adiabatic-nonadiabatic transition results in selective excitation of the three-level system, controlled by the laser intensity and spectral position of the …
