We describe a model for s-wave collisions between ground state atoms in optical lattices, considering especially the limits of quasi-one and two dimensional axisymmetric harmonic confinement. When the atomic interactions are modelled by an s-wave Fermi-pseudopotential, the relative motion energy eigenvalues can easily be obtained. The results show that except for a bound state, the trap eigenvalues are consistent with one- and two- dimensional scattering with renormalized scattering amplitudes. For absolute scattering lengths large compared with the tightest trap width, our model predicts a novel bound state of low energy and nearly-isotropic wavefunction extending on the order of the tightest trap width.
We derive a pseudopotential in two dimensions (2D) with the presence of a 2D Rashba spin-orbit-coupling (SOC), following the same spirit of frame transformation in {[}Phys. Rev. A 95, 020702(R) (2017){]}. The frame transformation correctly describes the non-trivial phase accumulation and partial wave couplings due to the presence of SOC and gives rise to a different pseudopotential than the free-space one, even when the length scale of SOC is significantly larger than the two-body potential range. As an application, we apply our pseudopotential with the Lippmann-Schwinger equation to obtain an…
The two-body scattering amplitude and energy spectrum of confined ultracold atoms are of fundamental importance for studies of ultracold atom physics. For many systems, one can efficiently calculate these quantities via the zero-range Huang-Yang pseudopotential (HYP), in which the interatomic interaction is characterized by the scattering length $a$. Furthermore, when the scattering length is dependent on the kinetic energy $\varepsilon_{\rm r}$ of two-atom relative motion, the results are applicable for a broad energy region. However, when the free Hamiltonian of atomic internal state does no…
We formulate a new quasi-Hermitian delta-shell pseudopotential for higher partial wave scattering, and show that any such potential must have an energy-dependent regularization. The quasi-Hermiticity of the Hamiltonian leads to a complete set of biorthogonal wave functions that can be used as a basis to expand and diagonalize other two-body Hamiltonians. We demonstrate this procedure for the case of ultracold atoms in a polarization-gradient optical lattice, interacting pairwise when two atoms are transported together from separated lattice sites. Here the pseudopotential depends explicitly on…
We report the trapping of ultracold neutral $ \text{Rb}$ atoms and $ \text{Ba}^+ $ ions in a common optical potential in absence of any radiofrequency (RF) fields. We prepare $ \text{Ba}^+ $ at $ 370 ~ μK $ and demonstrate efficient sympathetic cooling by $100 ~ μK $ after one collision. Our approach is currently limited by the $ \text{Rb}$ density and related three-body losses, but it overcomes the fundamental limitation in RF traps set by RF-driven, micromotion-induced heating. It is applicable to a wide range of ion-atom species, and may enable novel ultracold chemistry experiments and comp…
We investigate controlled collisions between trapped but separated ultracold atoms. The interaction between atoms is treated self-consistently using an energy-dependent delta-function pseudopotential model, whose validity we establish. At a critical separation, a "trap-induced shape resonance" between a molecular bound states and a vibrational eigenstate of the trap can occur. This resonance leads to an avoided crossing in the eigenspectrum as a function of separation. We investigate how this new resonance can be employed for quantum control.
For exploration of quantum effects with hybrid atom-ion systems, reaching ultracold temperatures is the major limiting factor. In this work, we present results on numerical simulations of trapped ion buffer gas cooling using an ultracold atomic gas in a large number of experimentally realistic scenarios. We explore the suppression of micromotion-induced heating effects through optimization of trap parameters for various radio-frequency (rf) traps and rf driving schemes including linear and octupole traps, digital Paul traps, rotating traps and hybrid optical/rf traps. We find that very similar…
We consider the system of two interacting atoms confined in axially symmetric harmonic trap. Within the pseudopotential approximation, we solve the Schroedinger equation exactly, discussing the limits of quasi-one and quasi-two-dimensional geometries. Finally, we discuss the application of an energy-dependent pseudopotential, which allows to extend the validity of our results to the case of tight traps and large scattering lengths.
Superconducting atom chips have very significant advantages in realizing trapping structures for ultracold atoms compared to conventional atom chips. We extend these advantages further by developing the ability to dynamically tailor the superconducting trap architecture. Heating the chosen parts of a superconducting film by transferring optical images onto its surface we are able to modify the current density distribution and create desired trapping potentials. This method enables us to change the shape and structure of magnetic traps, enabling versatile applications in atomtronics.
We present a zero-range pseudopotential applicable for all partial wave interactions between neutral atoms. For p- and d-waves we derive effective pseudopotentials, which are useful for problems involving anisotropic external potentials. Finally, we consider two nontrivial applications of the p-wave pseudopotential: we solve analytically the problem of two interacting spin-polarized fermions confined in a harmonic trap, and analyze the scattering of p-wave interacting particles in a quasi-two-dimensional system.
An accurate measurement of the bunching of photons in the fluorescent emission from an ultracold ensemble of thermal 87Rb atoms in a steady-state magneto-optical trap is presented. Time-delayed-intensity-interferometry (TDII) performed with a 5-nanosecond time resolution yielded a second-order intensity correlation function that has the ideal value of 2 at zero delay, and that shows coherent Rabi oscillations of upto 5 full periods - much longer than the spontaneous emission lifetime of the excited state of Rb. The oscillations are damped out by ~150ns, and thereafter, as expected from a therm…
We theoretically study trapped ions that are immersed in an ultracold gas of Rydberg-dressed atoms. By off-resonant coupling on a dipole-forbidden transition, the adiabatic atom-ion potential can be made repulsive. We study the energy exchange between the atoms and a single trapped ion and find that Langevin collisions are inhibited in the ultracold regime for these repulsive interactions. Therefore, the proposed system avoids recently observed ion heating in hybrid atom-ion systems caused by coupling to the ion's radio frequency trapping field and retains ultracold temperatures even in the pr…
With radiofrequency fields one can control ultracold atoms in magnetic traps. These fields couple the atomic spin states, and are used in evaporative cooling which can lead to Bose-Einstein condensation in the atom cloud. Also, they can be used in controlled release of the condensate from the trap, thus providing output couplers for atom lasers. In this paper we show that the time-dependent multistate models for these processes have exact solutions which are polynomials of the solutions of the corresponding two-state models. This allows simple, in many cases analytic descriptions for the time-…
We study the properties of a quantum particle interacting with a one dimensional structure of equidistant scattering centres. We derive an analytical expression for the dispersion relation and for the Bloch functions in the presence of both even and odd scattering waves within the pseudopotential approximation. This generalises the well-known solid-state physics text-book result known as the Kronig-Penney model. Our generalised model can be used to describe systems such as degenerate Fermi gases interacting with ions or with another neutral atomic species confined in an optical lattice, thus e…
The immersion of a single ion confined by a radiofrequency trap in an ultracold atomic gas extends the concept of buffer gas cooling to a new temperature regime. The steady state energy distribution of the ion is determined by its kinetics in the radiofrequency field rather than the temperature of the buffer gas. Moreover, the finite size of the ultracold gas facilitates the observation of back-action of the ion onto the buffer gas. We numerically investigate the system's properties depending on atom-ion mass ratio, trap geometry, differential cross-section, and non-uniform neutral atom densit…
The study of low density, ultracold atomic Fermi gases is a promising avenue to understand fermion superfluidity from first principles. One technique currently used to bring Fermi gases in the degenerate regime is sympathetic cooling through a reservoir made of an ultracold Bose gas. We discuss a proposal for trapping and cooling of two-species Fermi-Bose mixtures into optical dipole traps made from combinations of laser beams having two different wavelengths. In these bichromatic traps it is possible, by a proper choice of the relative laser powers, to selectively trap the two species in such…
Ultracold atoms placed in a tight cigar-shaped trap are usually described in terms of the Lieb-Liniger model. We study the extensions of this model which arise when van der Waals interaction between atoms is taken into account. We find that the corrections induced by the finite range of interactions can become especially important in the vicinity of narrow Feshbach resonances and suggest realistic schemes of their experimental detection. The interplay of confinement and interactions can lead to effective transparency where the one-dimensional interactions are weak in a wide range of parameters…
Raman interaction of a trapped ultracold ion with two traveling wave lasers has been used extensively in the ion trap experiments. We solve this interaction in the absence of the rotating wave approximation by a continued fraction, without considering the restriction of the Lamb-Dicke limit and the weak excitation regime. Some interesting characteristics of the ion-trap system, particularly for the ion outside the weak excitation regime are found. Finally, a comparison of our results with the solution under the rotating wave approximation is made.
Ultracold dysprosium gases, with a magnetic moment ten times that of alkali atoms and equal only to terbium as the most magnetic atom, are expected to exhibit a multitude of fascinating collisional dynamics and quantum dipolar phases, including quantum liquid crystal physics. We report the first laser cooling and trapping of half a billion Dy atoms using a repumper-free magneto-optical trap (MOT) and continuously loaded magnetic confinement, and we characterize the trap recycling dynamics for bosonic and fermionic isotopes. The first inelastic collision measurements in the few partial wave, 10…
High-density and ultracold atomic gases have emerged as promising media for storage of individual photons for quantum memory applications. In this paper we provide an overview of our theoretical and experimental efforts in this direction, with particular attention paid to manipulation of light storage (a) through complex recurrent optical scattering processes in very high density gases (b) by an external control field in a characteristic electromagnetically induced transparency configuration.
We derive a generalized zero-range pseudopotential applicable to all partial wave solutions to the Schroedinger equation based on a delta-shell potential in the limit that the shell radius approaches zero. This properly models all higher order multipole moments not accounted for with a monopolar delta function at the origin, as used in the familiar Fermi pseudopotential for s-wave scattering. By making the strength of the potential energy dependent, we derive self-consistent solutions for the entire energy spectrum of the realistic potential. We apply this to study two particles in an isotropi…
The superpositional wave function oscillations for finite-time implementation of quantum algorithms modifies the desired interference required for quantum computing. We propose a scheme with trapped ultracold ion-pairs being qubits to diminish the detrimental effect of the wave function oscillations, and apply the scheme to the two-qubit Grover's search. It can be also found that the qubits in our scheme are more robust against the decoherence caused by the environment, and the model is scalable.
We discuss exact solutions of the Schroedinger equation for the system of two ultracold atoms confined in an axially symmetric harmonic potential. We investigate different geometries of the trapping potential, in particular we study the properties of eigenenergies and eigenfunctions for quasi-one- and quasi-two-dimensional traps. We show that the quasi-one- and the quasi-two-dimensional regimes for two atoms can be already realized in the traps with moderately large (or small) ratios of the trapping frequencies in the axial and the transverse directions. Finally, we apply our theory to Feshbac…
We present the experimental implementation of a new trap for cold atoms proposed by O. Zobay and B. M. Garraway. It relies on adiabatic potentials for atoms dressed by a rf field in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. This trap is well suited to confine atoms tightly along one direction to produce a two-dimensional atomic gas. We transferred ultracold atoms into this trap, starting either from thermal samples or Bose--Einstein condensates. In the latter case, technical noise during the loading stage caused heating and prevented us from observing 2D BECs.
We report on the design, implementation, and performance of a compact two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D MOT) for cesium. In a small-volume vacuum chamber, the setup uses cesium dispensers in close proximity to the trapping region of the 2D MOT and operates at low vapor pressures in the $10^{-9}$ torr range. We achieve a cold atom flux of $4 \times 10^8$ atoms/s that is comparable to the performance of more complex atomic sources. The setup is simple to construct and can be adapted to a broad range of atomic species.
Spatial adiabatic passage processes for ultracold atoms trapped in tunnel-coupled cylindrically symmetric concentric potentials are investigated. Specifically, we discuss the matter-wave analogue of the rapid adiabatic passage (RAP) technique for a high fidelity and robust loading of a single atom into a harmonic ring potential from a harmonic trap, and for its transport between two concentric rings. We also consider a system of three concentric rings and investigate the transport of a single atom between the innermost and the outermost rings making use of the matter-wave analogue of the stimu…
We consider two ultracold particles confined in spherically symmetric harmonic trap and interacting via isotropic potential with absorbing boundary conditions at short range that models reactive scattering. First, we apply the contact pseudopotential with complex scattering length and investigate the properties of eigenergies and eigenfunctions for different trap states as a function of real and imaginary part of the scattering length. In the analyzed case the eigenenergies take complex values, and their imaginary part can be interpreted in terms of decay rates. Then we introduce the model of …
Recently we have reported (Knoop et al. [arXiv:1404.4826]) on an experimental determination of metastable triplet $^4$He+$^{87}$Rb scattering length by performing thermalization measurements for an ultracold mixture in a quadrupole magnetic trap. Here we present our experimental apparatus and elaborate on these thermalization measurements. In particular we give a theoretical description of interspecies thermalization rate for a quadrupole magnetic trap, i. e. in the presence of Majorana heating, and a general procedure to extract the scattering length from the elastic cross section at finite t…
Ultracold atom-traps on a chip enhances the practical application of atom traps in quantum information processing, sensing, and metrology. Plasmon mediated near-field optical potentials are promising for trapping atoms. The combination of plasmonic nanostructures and ultracold atoms has the potential to create a two dimensional array of neutral atoms with lattice spacing smaller than that of lattices created from interfering light fields -- the optical lattices. We report the design, fabrication and characterization of a nano-scale array of near-field optical traps for neutral atoms using plas…
The influence of a tight isotropic harmonic trap on photoassociation of two ultracold alkali atoms forming a homonuclear diatomic is investigated using realistic atomic interaction potentials. Confinement of the initial atom pair due to the trap leads to a uniform strong enhancement of the photoassociation rate to most, but also to a strongly suppressed rate for some final states. Thus tighter traps do not necessarily enhance the photoassociation rate. A further massive enhancement of the rate is found for strong interatomic interaction potentials. The details of this interaction play a minor …
We theoretically investigate the properties of two interacting ultracold highly magnetic atoms trapped in a one-dimensional harmonic potential. The atoms interact via an anisotropic long-range dipole-dipole interaction, which in one dimension effectively can be modeled by the contact interaction. We investigate the interplay of the external magnetic field, the spin-spin interaction, and the trapping potential and how they affect the magnetization of the system. We show the role of indistinguishability and symmetries in the dynamics by studying the time evolution of the observables that could b…
We study confined scattering of a quantum particle by two centers fixed on the longitudinal axis of a harmonic waveguide-like trap. The conditions of confinement-induced resonances (CIRs) appearing in these systems, when scattering cross section approaches the unitary limit, are derived for a regularized pseudopotential describing particle interaction with scattering centers. In the limit of a single center, the position of CIR for even state tends to the well-known result obtained by Olshanii. Our result can be applicable to confined atomic scattering by fixed impurities, like ions or Rydberg…
We investigate the properties of two interacting ultracold polar molecules described as distinguishable quantum rigid rotors, trapped in a one-dimensional harmonic potential. The molecules interact via a multichannel two-body contact potential, incorporating the short-range anisotropy of intermolecular interactions including dipole-dipole interaction. The impact of external electric and magnetic fields resulting in Stark and Zeeman shifts of molecular rovibrational states is also investigated. Energy spectra and eigenstates are calculated by means of the exact diagonalization. The importance a…
The dynamics of two traps with ultracold atoms and connected by Josephson type coupling, is shown to exhibit a transition from dispersive dynamics to localized coherent oscillations. This transition is controlled by coupling strength and energy offset between the traps. The dynamics is also shown to be exactly that of a Heisenberg chain with a linear magnetic field. Possible applications for ``quantum-state engineering'' are discussed.
We consider controlled collisions between two ultracold atoms guided by external harmonic potentials. We derive analytical solutions of the Schroedinger equation for this system, and investigate the properties of eigenergies and eigenstates for different trap geometries as a function of a trap separation and of the scattering length. When varying the trap separation the energy spectrum exhibits avoided crossings, corresponding to trap-induced shape resonances. Introducing an energy-dependent scattering length we investigate the behavior of the system in the vicinity of a magnetic Feshbach reso…
We propose a potentially practical scheme for realization of an n-qubit (n>2) conditional phase flip (CPF) gate and implementation of Grover search algorithm in the ion-trap system. We demonstrate both analytically and numerically that, our scheme could be achieved efficiently to find a marked state with high fidelity and high success probability. We also show the merits of the proposal that the increase of the ion number can improve the fidelity and the success probability of the CPF gate. The required operations for Grover search are very close to the capabilities of current ion-trap techniq…
The standard experimental techniques usually adopted in the study of the behaviour of ultracold atoms in optical lattices involve extracting the atom density profile from absorption images of the atomic sample after trap release. Quantum mechanically this procedure is described by a generalized measure (POVM); interference patterns found in absorption images suggest a generalized measure based on fixed-phase, coherent-like states. We show that this leads to an average atomic density which differs from the usually adopted one, obtained as the expectation value of the atom density operator in th…
We undertake a detailed analysis of the non-local properties of the fundamental problem of two trapped, distinguishable neutral atoms which interact with a short range potential characterised by an s-wave scattering length. We show that this interaction generates continuous variable (CV) entanglement between the external degrees of freedom of the atoms and consider its behaviour as a function of both, the distance between the traps and the magnitude of the inter-particle scattering length. We first quantify the entanglement in the ground state of the system at zero temperature and then, adopti…
We solve the two-particle s-wave scattering problem for ultracold atom gases confined in arbitrary quasi-one-dimensional trapping potentials, allowing for two different atom species. As a consequence, the center-of-mass and relative degrees of freedom do not factorize. We derive bound-state solutions and obtain the general scattering solution, which exhibits several resonances in the 1D scattering length induced by the confinement. We apply our formalism to two experimentally relevant cases: (i) interspecies scattering in a two-species mixture, and (ii) the two-body problem for a single specie…
We theoretically investigate the magnetic properties and nonequilibrium dynamics of two interacting ultracold polar and paramagnetic molecules in a one-dimensional harmonic trap in external electric and magnetic fields. The molecules interact via a multichannel two-body contact potential, incorporating the short-range anisotropy of intermolecular interactions. We show that various magnetization states arise from the interplay of the molecular interactions, electronic spins, dipole moments, rotational structures, external fields, and spin-rotation coupling. The rich magnetization diagrams depen…
Motivated by the recent progress in cooling and trapping polar molecules, we present a simplified version of the rigorous contact pseudopotential for anisotropically-interacting polarized particles [A. Derevianko, Phys. Rev. A 67, 033607 (2003); Phys. Rev. A 72, 039901(E) (2005)]. The simplifications are carried out for a practically important case of harmonically confined particles described by sufficiently smooth wavefunctions. The resulting contact pseudo-potential depends on the K-matrix of the underlying scattering process and is represented as a sum over pairs of partial waves coupled by…
We experimentally demonstrate optical spectroscopy of magnetically trapped atoms on an atom chip. High resolution optical spectra of individual trapped clouds are recorded within a few hundred milliseconds. Detection sensitivities close to the single atom level are obtained by photoionization of the excited atoms and subsequent ion detection with a channel electron multiplier. Temperature and decay rates of the trapped atomic cloud can be monitored in real time for several seconds with only little detection losses. The spectrometer can be used for investigations of ultracold atomic mixtures an…
Population dynamics in weakly-excited clouds of ultracold $^{87}$Rb Rydberg atoms were studied by means of trap loss, fluorescence detection, and state dependent stimulated emission. Rydberg atoms were excited to various nl Rydberg states via continuous two-photon excitation from a magneto-optical trap. A stimulated emission probe laser was then used to bring the Rydberg atoms down to the 6P$_{3/2}$ state, allowing state-dependent detection of the Rydberg atoms. Measurements of trap loss and fluorescent emission reveal information about the evolution of the Rydberg populations. In particular, …
The subject of bianyon interference with ultracold atoms is introduced through theoretical investigations pertaining to the second-order momentum correlation maps of two anyons (built upon spinless and spin-1/2 bosonic, as well as spin-1/2 fermionic ultracold atoms) trapped in a double-well optical trap. The two-particle system is modeled according to the recently proposed protocols for emulating an anyonic Hubbard Hamiltonian in ultracold-atom one-dimensional lattices. Because the second-order momentum correlations are mirrored in the time-of-flight second-order interference patterns in space…
We investigate the ground state properties and tunneling dynamics of ultracold dipolar bosons in a one dimensional triple well trap from a few-body ab-initio perspective. Our focus is primarily on the distinctive features of dipolar bosons compared to the contact interacting bosons. Formation of intra-well localization is observed for very strong dipolar interaction. General population rearangement as well as fragmentation and localization effects have been found, depending strongly on the particle number. The energy spectrum for two particles exhibits avoided crossings that lead to several di…
A new method to implement an asymmetrical two-dimensional magnetic lattice is proposed. The asymmetrical two-dimensional magnetic lattice can be created by periodically distributing magnetic minima across the surface of magnetic thin film where the periodicity can be achieved by milling $n\times n$ square holes on the surface of the film. The quantum device is proposed for trapping and confining ultracold atoms and quantum degenerate gases prepared in the low magnetic field seeking-state at low temperature, such as the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) and ultracold fermions. We present detailed …
