We identify a new type of periodic evolution that appears in driven quantum systems. Provided that the instantaneous (adiabatic) energies are equidistant we show how such systems can be mapped to (time-dependent) tilted single-band lattice models. Having established this mapping, the dynamics can be understood in terms of Bloch oscillations in the instantaneous energy basis. In our lattice model the site-localized states are the adiabatic ones, and the Bloch oscillations manifest as a periodic repopulation among these states, or equivalently a periodic change in the system's instantaneous energy. Our predictions are confirmed by considering two different models: a driven harmonic oscillator and a Landau-Zener grid model. Both models indeed show convincing, or even perfect, oscillations. To strengthen the link between our energy Bloch oscillations and the original spatial Bloch oscillations we add a random disorder that breaks the translational invariance of the spectrum. This verifies that the oscillating evolution breaks down and instead turns into a ballistic spreading.
We study Rabi oscillations between the bands of an arbitrary biased superlattice in a tight-binding model. We reduce the problem to an equation of Whittaker--Hill type and, in absence of any known solutions in closed form, discuss different approximations to describe the oscillations between the Bloch bands. We identify regimes of weak and strong inter-band coupling and compare predictions for these Rabi oscillations to numerical results.
We study the Bloch oscillation dynamics of a spin-orbit-coupled cold atomic gas trapped inside a one-dimensioanl optical lattice. The eigenspectra of the system is identified as two interpenetrating Wannier-Stark ladder. Based on that, we carefully analyzed the Bloch oscillation dynamics and found out that intraladder coupling between neighboring rungs of Wannier-Stark ladder give rise to ordinary Bloch oscillation while interladder coupling lead to small amplitude high frequency oscillation superimposed on it. Specifically spin-orbit interaction breaks Galilean invariance, which can be reflec…
We propose to use Bloch oscillation of ultra-cold atoms in a spin-dependent optical lattice to prepare schrodinger cat states. Depending on its internal state, an atom feels different periodic potentials and thus has different energy band structures for its center-of-mass motion. Consequently, under the same gravity force, the wave packets associated with different internal states perform Bloch oscillation of different amplitudes in space and in particular they can be macroscopically displaced with respect to each other. In this way, a cat state can be prepared.
We discuss the method for the measurement of the gravity acceleration g by means of Bloch oscillations of an accelerated BEC in an optical lattice. This method has a theoretical critical point due to the fact that the period of the Bloch oscillations depends, in principle, on the initial shape of the BEC wavepacket. Here, by making use of the nearest-neighbor model for the numerical analysis of the BEC wavefunction, we show that in real experiments the period of the Bloch oscillations does not really depend on the shape of the initial wavepacket and that the relative uncertainty, due to the fa…
We show that the motion of an accelerated atomic impurity immersed in a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate in the supersolid stripe phase undergoes oscillations, similar to the well-known phenomenon of Bloch oscillations in solids. While the back-action of the oscillatory movement onto the condensate excites phonon modes inside the supersolid, it does not affect the position of the roton minimum and therefore not the periodicity of the matter wave lattice. The ultimate decay of the oscillations is mostly due to the dispersion of the wavepacket and we show that this can be counteracted…
Recent experimental progress in the creation of synthetic electric and magnetic fields, acting on cold atoms in a two-dimensional lattice, has attracted renewed interest to the problem of a quantum particle in the Hall configuration. The present work contains a detailed analysis of the eigenstates of this system, called Landau-Stark states, and of the associated dynamical phenomenon of cyclotron-Bloch oscillations. It is shown that Landau-Stark states and cyclotron-Bloch oscillations crucially depend on two factors. The first is the orientation of the electric field relative to the primary axe…
Cold atoms in an optical lattice execute Bloch-Zener oscillations when they are accelerated. We have performed a theoretical investigation into the case when the optical lattice is the intra-cavity field of a driven Fabry-Perot resonator. When the atoms oscillate inside the resonator, we find that their back-action modulates the phase and intensity of the light transmitted through the cavity. We solve the coupled atom-light equations self-consistently and show that, remarkably, the Bloch period is unaffected by this back-action. The transmitted light provides a way to observe the oscillation c…
We point out that in higher dimensions, in contrast to the one dimensional case considered usually, Bloch oscillation driven by a static force can induce transport of the wave packet. The wave packet oscillates constantly, but on a larger time scale it drifts at a constant velocity permanently. As a noteworthy feature, the net transport in the long run is always normal to the external force and thus controlled by it. We verify this prediction numerically and discuss its experimental realization both with cold atoms in optical lattices and with two dimensional photonic lattices.
We present theoretical and numerical results on the dynamics of ultracold atoms in an accelerated single- and double-periodic optical lattice. In the single-periodic potential Bloch oscillations can be used to generate fast directed transport with very little dispersion. The dynamics in the double-periodic system is dominated by Bloch-Zener oscillations, i.e. the interplay of Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling between the subbands. Apart from directed transport, the latter system permits various interesting applications, such as widely tunable matter wave beam splitters and Mach-Zehnder in…
We address Bloch oscillations of a spin-orbit coupled atom in periodic potentials of two types: Optical and Zeeman lattices. We show that in optical lattices the spin-orbit coupling allows controlling the direction of atomic motion and may lead to complete suppression of the oscillations at specific values of the coupling strength. In Zeeman lattices the energy bands are found to cross each other at the boundaries of the Brillouin zone, resulting in period-doubling of the oscillations. In all cases, the oscillations are accompanied by rotation of the pseudo-spin, with a dynamics that is determ…
The paper studies Bloch oscillations of cold neutral atoms in the optical lattice. The effect of spontaneous emission on the dynamics of the system is analyzed both analytically and numerically. The spontaneous emission is shown to cause (i) the decay of Bloch oscillations with the decrement given by the rate of spontaneous emission and (ii) the diffusive spreading of the atoms with a diffusion coefficient depending on {\em both} the rate of spontaneous emission and the Bloch frequency.
The studies of multi-magnon excitations will extend our understandings of quantum magnetism and strongly correlated matters. Here, by using the time-evolving block decimation algorithm, we investigate the Bloch oscillations of two-magnon excitations under a gradient magnetic field. Through analyzing the symmetry of the Hamiltonian, we derive a rigorous and universal relation between ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic systems. Under strong interactions, in addition to free-magnon Bloch oscillations, there appear fractional bounded-magnon Bloch oscillations which can be understood by an effect…
Quantum particles performing Bloch oscillations in a spatially periodic potential can be used as a very accurate detector of constant forces. We find that the similar oscillations that can appear in the Floquet phase space of a quantum particle subjected a periodic temporal driving, even in the absence of periodic lattice potential, can likewise be exploited as detectors. Compared with their spatial Bloch analog, however, the Floquet-Bloch oscillations provide significant added flexibility and open the way to a broad range of precision metrology applications. We illustrate this property on the…
Adiabatic quantum pumping in one-dimensional lattices is extended by adding a tilted potential to probe better topologically nontrivial bands. This extension leads to almost perfectly quantized pumping for an arbitrary initial state selected in a band of interest, including Bloch states. In this approach, the time variable offers not only a synthetic dimension as in the case of the Thouless pumping, but it assists also in the uniform sampling of all momenta due to the Bloch oscillations induced by the tilt. The quantized drift of Bloch oscillations is determined by a one-dimensional time integ…
It is well known that a particle in a periodic potential with an additional constant force performs Bloch oscillations. Modulating every second period of the potential, the original Bloch band splits into two subbands. The dynamics of quantum particles shows a coherent superposition of Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling between the subbands, a Bloch-Zener oscillation. Such a system is modelled by a tight-binding Hamiltonian, a system of two minibands with an easily controllable gap. The dynamics of the system is investigated by using an algebraic ansatz leading to a differential equation o…
We experimentally investigate a discrete time quantum walk in a system of coupled fiber loops and observe typical phenomena known from the wave propagation in periodic structures as ballistic spreading or an oscillation between two internal quantum states similar to Zitterbewegung (trembling motion). If a position-dependent phase gradient is applied we find localization and Bloch oscillations of the field for moderate as well as Landau-Zener tunneling for strong phase gradients.
We propose to measure band topology via quantized drift of Bloch oscillations in a two-dimensional Harper-Hofstadter lattice subjected to tilted fields in both directions. When the difference between the two tilted fields is large, Bloch oscillations uniformly sample all momenta, and hence the displacement in each direction tends to be quantized at multiples of the overall period, regardless of any momentum of initial state. The quantized displacement is related to a reduced Chern number defined as a line integral of Berry curvature in each direction, providing an almost perfect measurement of…
We report new oscillations of wavepackets in quantum walks subjected to electric fields, that decorate the usual Bloch-Zener oscillations of insulators. The number of turning points (or sub-oscillations) within one Bloch period of these oscillations is found to be governed by the winding of the quasienergy spectrum. Thus, this provides a new physical manifestation of a topological property of periodically driven systems that can be probed experimentally. Our model, based on an oriented scattering network, is readily implementable in photonic and cold atomic setups.
A Lie-algebraic approach successfully used to describe one-dimensional Bloch oscillations in a tight-binding approximation is extended to two dimensions. This extension has the same algebraic structure as the one-dimensional case while the dynamics shows a much richer behaviour. The Bloch oscillations are discussed using analytical expressions for expectation values and widths of the operators of the algebra. It is shown under which conditions the oscillations survive in two dimensions and the centre of mass of a wave packet shows a Lissajous like motion. In contrast to the one-dimensional cas…
We investigate the dynamics of a wave packet in a parity-breaking one-dimensional periodic potential slowly varied in time and perturbed by a linear potential. Parity is broken by considering an asymmetric double well per unit cell. By comparing the prediction of the semiclassical dynamics with the full Schrödinger solution, we show that Bloch oscillations are strongly affected by anomalous velocity corrections related to Berry's phase. We characterize how these effects depend on the degree of parity breaking of the potential and on the modulation parameters. We also discuss how to measure the…
This article aims to study the existence of stable Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling in a non-Hermitian system when exposed to external fields. We investigate a non-Hermitian $\cal{PT}$-symmetric diamond chain network and its transport dynamics in two different situations, namely in a flat band case and a non-flat band case. The considered system does not support unbroken-$\cal{PT}$ phase or completely real eigenspectra in any of the parametric regions in both the flat and non-flat band cases. In the flat band case, up to a critical value of the gain-loss parameter, the bands are f…
Bloch oscillations are exotic phenomena describing the periodic motion of a wave packet subjected to the external force in a lattice, where the system possessing single- or multipleparticles could exhibit distinct oscillation behaviors. In particular, it has been pointed out that quantum statistics could dramatically affected the Bloch oscillation even in the absence of particle interactions, where the oscillation frequency of two pseudofermions with the anyonic statistical angle being pi becomes half of that for two bosons. However, these statisticdependent Bloch oscillations have never been …
The realization of reliable quantum channels, able to transfer a quantum state with high fidelity, is a fundamental step in the construction of scalable quantum devices. In this paper we describe a transmission scheme based on the genuinely quantum effect known as Bloch oscillations. The proposed protocol makes it possible to carry quantum state over different distances with a minimal engineering of the transmission medium and can be implemented and verified on current quantum technology hardware.
Wannier-Stark ladder in a PT symmetric system is generally complex that leads to amplified/damped Bloch oscillation. We show that a non-amplified wave packet oscillation with very large amplitude can be realized in a non-Hermitian tight binding lattice if certain conditions are satisfied. We show that pseudo PT symmetry guarantees the reality of the quasi energy spectrum in our system.
We have developed a formalism suitable for calculation of the output spectrum of a detector continuously measuring quantum coherent oscillations in a solid-state qubit, starting from microscopic Bloch equations. The results coincide with that obtained using Bayesian and master equation approaches. The previous results are generalized to the cases of arbitrary detector response and finite detector temperature.
We study the Bloch dynamics of a quasi one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate of cold atoms in a tilted optical lattice modeled by a Hamiltonian of Bose-Hubbard type: The corresponding mean-field system described by a discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation can show a dynamical (or modulation) instability due to chaotic dynamics and equipartition over the quasimomentum modes. It is shown, that these phenomena are related to a depletion of the Floquet-Bogoliubov states and a decoherence of the condensate in the many-particle description. Three different types of dynamics are distinguished: (i…
We consider the propagation of a quantized polarized light in a magneto-optically manipulated atomic ensemble with a tripod configuration. Polariton formalism is applied when the medium is subjected to a washboard magnetic field under electromagnetically induced transparency. The dark-state polariton with multiple components is achieved. We analyze quantum dynamics of the dark-state polariton by some experiment data from rubidium D1-line. It is found that one component propagates freely, however the wavepacket trajectory of the other component performs Bloch oscillations.
We show that if the Rabi frequency is comparable to the Bohr frequency so that the rotating wave approximation is inappropriate, an extra oscillation is present with the Rabi oscillation. We discuss how the sensitivity of the degree of excitation to the phase of the field may pose severe constraints on precise rotations of quantum bits involving low-frequency transitions. We present a scheme for observing this effect in an atomic beam.
We examine the behavior of single photons at multiport devices and inquire if coherent effects are possible. In particular we study how single photons need to be manipulated in order to study coherent phenomena. We show that single photons need to be produced in W states which lead to vanishing mean amplitude but nonzero correlations between the inputs at different ports. Such correlations restore coherent effects with single photons. As a specific example we demonstrate Bloch oscillations with single photons and thus provide strict analog of Bloch oscillation of electrons.
In a direct two-level qubit system, when the Rabi frequency is comparable to the resonance frequency, the rotating wave approximation is not appropriate. In this case, the Rabi oscillation is accompanied by another oscillation at twice the frequency of the driving field, the so called Bloch-Siegert oscillation (BSO), which depends on the initial phase of the driving field. This oscillation may restrict the precise rotation of a qubit made of direct two-level system. Here, we show that in case of an effectively two-level lambda system, the BSO is inherently negligible, implying a greater precis…
We study the dynamics of a quantum walker simultaneously subjected to time-independent and -dependent phases. Such dynamics emulates a charged quantum particle in a lattice subjected to a superposition of static and harmonic electric fields. With proper settings, we investigate the possibility to induce Bloch-like super-oscillations, resulting from a close tuning of the frequency of the harmonic phase $ω$ and that associated with the regular Bloch-like oscillations $ω_B$ . By exploring the frequency spectra of the wavepacket centroid, we are able to distinguish the regimes on which regular and…
We show that when photons in N-particle path entangled |N,0> + |0,N> state undergo Bloch oscillations, they exhibit a periodic transition between spatially bunched and antibunched states. The transition occurs even when the photons are well separated in space. We study the scaling of the bunching-antibunching period, and show it is proportional to 1/N.
We show that initially localized and uncorrelated two-particles quantum wavepackets evolving in a one-dimensional discrete lattice become strongly entangled while drifting under the action of an harmonic AC field resonant with doubled Bloch oscillations promoted by a static DC field. Although partial entanglement is achieved when the AC field is resonant with the single-particle Bloch oscillations, it is strongly limited by the survival of anti-correlated unbounded states. We further show that the phase dependence of the wavepacket centroid velocity is similar to the semiclassical behavior dep…
We predict that two correlated particles hopping on a one-dimensional Hubbard lattice can show transient self-acceleration and self-induced Bloch oscillations as a result of anti-Newtonian dynamics. Self-propulsion occurs for two particles with opposite effective mass on the lattice and requires long-range particle interaction. A photonic simulator of the two-particle Hubbard model with controllable long-range interaction, where self-propulsion can be observed, is discussed.
We study a quantum particle in a tilted honeycomb lattice in the tight-binding approximation. First we discuss the particle eigenstates, i.e., the stationary Wannier-Stark states. These states are proved to be extended states for the rational directions of the static field and localized states for the irrational directions. We find energy bands of the extended states and analyze the localized states. It is shown, in particular, that the localized `honeycomb' Wannier-Stark states are chaotic states with irregular dependence of the localization length on the static field magnitude. Second we dis…
Bloch oscillations, the oscillatory motion of a quantum particle in a periodic potential, are one of the most fascinating effects of coherent quantum transport. Originally studied in the context of electrons in crystals, Bloch oscillations manifest the wave nature of matter and are found in a wide variety of different physical systems. Here we report on the first experimental observation of fractional Bloch oscillations, using a photonic lattice as a model system of a two-particle extended Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian. In our photonic simulator, the dynamics of two correlated particles hopping on …
The engineering of synthetic dimensions allows for the construction of fictitious lattice structures by coupling the discrete degrees of freedom of a physical system, such as the quantized modes of an electromagnetic cavity or the internal states of an atom. This method enables the study of static and dynamical Bloch band properties in the absence of a real periodic lattice structure. So far, the vast majority of implementations have focused on linear and conservative processes, with the potentially rich physics and opportunities offered by nonlinearities and dissipation remaining largely unex…
In Paris, we are using an atom interferometer to precisely measure the recoil velocity of an atom that absorbs a photon. In order to reach a high sensitivity, many recoils are transferred to atoms using the Bloch oscillations technique. In this lecture, I will present in details this technique and its application to high precision measurement. I will especially describe in details how this method allows us to perform an atom recoil measurement at the level of $1.3 \times 10^{-9}$. This measurement is used in the most precise determination of the fine structure constant that is independent of q…
We study the coherent dynamics of a qubit excited by an amplitude-modulated electromagnetic field under the Rabi resonance when the frequency of the low-frequency modulation field matches the Rabi frequency in the high-frequency field. Due to destructive interference of multiple photon processes at the ultrastrong coupling between the qubit and the low-frequency driving field, Rabi oscillations result exclusively from the Bloch-Siegert effect. It is directly observed in the time-resolved coherent dynamics as the Bloch-Siegert oscillation. In this case, triplets in Fourier spectra of the cohere…
We describe a universal behavior of linear molecules excited by a periodic train of short laser pulses under quantum resonance conditions. In a rigid rotor the resonance causes an unlimited ballistic growth of the angular momentum. We show that the centrifugal distortion of rotating molecules eventually halts the growth, by causing Anderson localization beyond a critical value of the angular momentum -- the Anderson wall. Its position solely depends on the molecular rotational constants and lies in the range of a few tens of hbar. Below the wall, rotational excitation oscillates with the numbe…
Dynamical localization, i.e. the absence of secular spreading of a quantum or classical wave packet, is usually associated to Hamiltonians with purely point spectrum, i.e. with a normalizable and complete set of eigenstates, which show quasi-periodic dynamics (recurrence). Here we show rather counter-intuitively that dynamical localization can be observed in Hamiltonians with absolutely continuous spectrum, where recurrence effects are forbidden. An optical realization of such an Hamiltonian is proposed based on beam propagation in a self-imaging optical resonator with a phase grating. Localiz…
A quantum particle subjected to a constant force undergoes an accelerated motion following a parabolic path, which differs from the classical motion just because of wave packet spreading (quantum diffusion). However, when a periodic potential is added (such as in a crystal) the particle undergoes Bragg scattering and an oscillatory (rather than accelerated) motion is found, corresponding to the famous Bloch oscillations. Here we introduce an exactly-solvable quantum Hamiltonian model, corresponding to a generalized Wannier-Stark Hamiltonian $\hat{H}$, in which a quantum particle shows an inter…
This work provides a convenient and powerful means towards the engineering of Floquet bands via Bloch oscillations, by adding a tilted linear potential to periodically driven lattice systems. The added linear field not only restricts the spreading of a time-evolving wavepacket but also, depending on the ratio between the Bloch oscillation frequency and the modulation frequency of the periodic driving, dramatically modifies the band profile and topology. Specifically, we consider a driven Aubry-André-Harper model as a working example, in the presence of a linear field. Almost flat Floquet bands…
We consider dynamics of a charged particle in a finite along the $x$ direction square lattice in the presence of normal to the lattice plane magnetic field and in-plane electric field aligned with the $y$ axis. For vanishing magnetic field this dynamics would be common Bloch oscillations where the particle oscillates in the $y$ direction with amplitude inverse proportional to the electric field. We show that a non-zero magnetic field crucially modifies this dynamics. Namely, the new Bloch oscillations consist of time intervals where the particle moves with constant velocity in the $x$ directio…
The periodically kicked quantum rotor is known for non-classical effects such as quantum localisation in angular momentum space or quantum resonances in rotational excitation. These phenomena have been studied in diverse systems mimicking the kicked rotor, such as cold atoms in optical lattices, or coupled photonic structures. Recently, it was predicted that several solid state quantum localisation phenomena - Anderson localisation, Bloch oscillations, and Tamm-Shockley surface states - may manifest themselves in the rotational dynamics of laser-kicked molecules. Here, we report the first obse…
Graphene features topological edge bands that connect the pair of Dirac points through either sectors of the 1D Brillouin zone depending on edge configurations (zigzag or bearded). Because of their flat dispersion, spontaneous edge magnetisation can arise from Coulomb interaction in graphene nanoribbons, which has caught remarkable interest. We find an anomalous Bloch oscillation in such edge bands, in which the flat dispersion freezes electron motion along the field direction, while the topological connection of the bands through the bulk leads to electron oscillation in the transverse direct…
The cyclic motion of particles in a periodic potential under the influence of a constant external force is analyzed in an atom optical approach based on Landau-Zener transitions between two resonant states. The resulting complex picture of population transfers can be interpreted in an intuitive diagrammatic way. The model is also applied to genuine atom optical systems and its applicability is discussed.
Under a perfect periodic potential, the electric current density induced by a constant electric field may exhibit nontrivial oscillations, so-called Bloch oscillations, with an amplitude that remains nonzero in the large system size limit. Such oscillations have been well studied for nearly noninteracting particles and observed in experiments. In this work, we revisit Bloch oscillations in strongly interacting systems. By analyzing the spin-1/2 XXZ chain, which can be mapped to a model of spinless electrons, we demonstrate that the current density at special values of the anisotropy parameter …
The Lieb Lattice exhibits intriguing properties that are of general interest in both the fundamental physics and practical applications. Here, we investigate the topological Landau-Zener Bloch oscillation in a photonic Floquet Lieb lattice, where the dimerized helical waveguides is constructed to realize the synthetic spin-orbital interaction through the Floquet mechanism, rendering us to study the impacts of topological transition from trivial gaps to non-trivial ones. The compact localized states of flat bands supported by the local symmetry of Lieb lattice will be associated with other band…
