R. G. Unanyan

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

We describe a method for creating an arbitrary coherent superposition of two atomic states in a controlled and robust way by using a sequence of three pulses in a four-state system. The proposed technique is based on the existence of two degenerate dark states (i.e. states having no component of the excited state) and their interaction. The mixing of the dark states can be controlled by changing the relative delay of the pulses, and thus an arbitrary superposition state can be generated. It is shown that the method is robust against small variations of parameters (e.g. the area of the pulses) and is insensitive to radiative decay from the intermediate excited state. A time reversed version of the technique makes possible the determination of phase occurring in a superposition of two atomic states.

Novel laser controlled variable matter wave beamsplitter.

We demonstrate a novel variable beam splitter using a tripod-linkage of atomic states, the physics of which is based on the laser control of the non-adiabatic coupling between two degenerate dark states. This coupling and the splitting ratio is determined by the time delay of the interaction induced by two of the laser beams.

Laser-induced adiabatic atomic reorientation with control of diabatic losses

Abstract We discuss theoretical procedures for using a single laser pulse, of varying linear polarization, to transfer population between sublevels of a degenerate atomic level. The method is based on application of the procedure of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP). We also show how, in principle, a pulsed quasistatic magnetic field can be used to improve the usual adiabatic constraints on achieving complete population transfer by means of STIRAP. The technique allows use of shorter pulses, so that population transfer can be achieved more rapidly. It diminishes, or even eliminates, diabatic loss during the population transfer.

Population transfer through the continuum using laser-controlled Stark shifts

Abstract We show, through analysis and numerical modeling of hydrogen and sodium, that it should be possible to transfer atomic population, with high probability, using a delayed-pulse two-photon Raman transition in which intermediate states are in the ionization continuum. We propose using auxiliary laser pulses to overcome dynamic Stark shifts that would otherwise prevent population transfer. We find that, even without such auxiliary pulses, population transfer can be improved by tuning the carrier frequencies away from the two-photon Raman resonance condition. Our computations for hydrogen predict nearly 85 percent population transfer.

Effective magnetic fields for stationary light.

We describe a method to create effective gauge potentials for stationary-light polaritons. When stationary light is created in the interaction with a rotating ensemble of coherently driven double-Lambda type atoms, the equation of motion is that of a massive Schrödinger particle in a magnetic field. Since the effective interaction area for the polaritons can be made large, degenerate Landau levels can be created with degeneracy well above 100. This opens up the possibility to study the bosonic analogue of the fractional quantum Hall effect for interacting stationary-light polaritons.

Efficient and robust entanglement generation in a many-particle system with resonant dipole-dipole interactions

We propose and discuss a scheme for robust and efficient generation of many-particle entanglement in an ensemble of Rydberg atoms with resonant dipole-dipole interactions. It is shown that in the limit of complete dipole blocking, the system is isomorphic to a multimode Jaynes-Cummings model. While dark-state population transfer is not capable of creating entanglement, other adiabatic processes are identified that lead to complex, maximally entangled states, such as the N-particle analog of the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state in a few steps. The process is robust, works for even and odd particle numbers and the characteristic time for entanglement generation scales linearly with N.

Coherent properties of a tripod system coupled via a continuum

We present results from a study of the coherence properties of a system involving three discrete states coupled to each other by two-photon processes via a common continuum. This tripod linkage is an extension of the standard laser-induced continuum structure (LICS) which involves two discrete states and two lasers. We show that in the tripod scheme, there exist two population trapping conditions; in some cases these conditions are easier to satisfy than the single trapping condition in two-state LICS. Depending on the pulse timing, various effects can be observed. We derive some basic properties of the tripod scheme, such as the solution for coincident pulses, the behaviour of the system in the adiabatic limit for delayed pulses, the conditions for no ionization and for maximal ionization, and the optimal conditions for population transfer between the discrete states via the continuum. In the case when one of the discrete states is strongly coupled to the continuum, the population dynamics reduces to a standard two-state LICS problem (involving the other two states) with modified parameters; this provides the opportunity to customize the parameters of a given two-state LICS system.

Bose-Einstein Condensation of Stationary-Light Polaritons

We propose and analyze a mechanism for Bose-Einstein condensation of stationary dark-state polaritons. Dark-state polaritons (DSPs) are formed in the interaction of light with laser-driven 3-level Lambda-type atoms and are the basis of phenomena such as electromagnetically induced transparency, ultraslow, and stored light. They have long intrinsic lifetimes and in a stationary setup, a 3D quadratic dispersion profile with variable effective mass. Since DSPs are bosons, they can undergo a Bose-Einstein condensation at a critical temperature which can be many orders of magnitude larger than that of atoms. We show that thermalization of polaritons can occur via elastic collisions mediated by a resonantly enhanced optical Kerr nonlinearity on a time scale short compared to the decay time. Finally, condensation can be observed by turning stationary into propagating polaritons and monitoring the emitted light.

Many-body physics of Rydberg dark-state polaritons in the strongly interacting regime

Coupling light to Rydberg states of atoms under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) leads to the formation of strongly interacting quasi-particles, termed Rydberg polaritons. We derive a one-dimensional model describing the time evolution of these polaritons under paraxial propagation conditions, which we verify by numerical two-excitation simulations. We determine conditions allowing for a description by an effective Hamiltonian of a single-species polariton, and calculate ground-state correlations by use of the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). Under typical stationary slow-light EIT conditions it is difficult to reach the strongly interacting regime where the interaction energy dominates the kinetic energy. We show that by employing time dependence of the control field the regime of strong interactions can be reached where the polaritons attain quasi crystalline order. We analyze the dynamics and resulting correlations for a translational invariant system in terms of a time-dependent Luttinger liquid theory and exact few-particle simulations and address the effects of nonadiabatic corrections and initial excitations.

Floquet perturbative analysis for STIRAP beyond the rotating wave approximation.

We present a perturbative analysis of Floquet eigenstates in the context of two delayed laser processes (STIRAP) in three level systems. We show the efficiency of a systematic perturbative development which can be applied as long as no non-linear resonances occur.