Open Quantum Systems

Basics of Cavity QED

There are two competing rates: the atom in the excited state coherently emitting a photon
into the cavity and the atom emitting incoherently in
free space
 Basics of Cavity QED
To  Detector  
Free  Space  

Cavity  (Photons)  
Atom  

There are two competing rates: the atom in the excited state coherently emitting a photon
into the cavity and the atom emitting incoherently in
free space
 Open Quantum Systems

Reservoir  
or  
system
Bath  

•  In reality, the system is not isolated but coupled to a reservoir (characterized by

many degrees of freedom or many particles or modes)
 Open Quantum Systems

system                                                                    Reservoir  

•  The system, the reservoir and their (little) interaction can all be described by
interaction energies or Hamiltonians
 Open Quantum Systems

system                                                                    Reservoir  

•  So solve the larger system!

But that is much harder
and anyways we are usually interested only in the system behavior.
 Open Quantum Systems
•  Density Matrix:
In general:
system Reservoir  

For pure states:

Operator expectation
value:

•  Try to get an effective equation for the system

 Open Quantum Systems

•  Density Matrix:
Evolution:
system Reservoir  

System and Environment:

System:

•  Try to get an effective equation for the system

 Master Equation

system Reservoir  

•  To take the trace on the R.H.S one needs to approximate the reservoir to a
point that it becomes a mere spectator:
Born approximation:
The reservoir is so large that it remains unaffected by the system

Markov approximation:
The reservoir has no memory of the past.
 Master Equation

system Reservoir  

For atoms: For cavities:

 Master Equation: Criticism

system Reservoir  

•  All degrees of freedom of the reservoir are integrated out. No information is

left in the reservoir.

•  It is hard to develop physical intuition with density matrix!

•  Computationally costly: N^2-1 elements as opposed to n elements

“Atom-Photon Interactions” –Cohen-Tanoudjii

 Stochastic Wave-function approach

system Reservoir  

Jump Operator that changes the state

•  Develop an effective wave-function approach from the master equation

Carmichael: “An open systems approach to Quantum Optics” and Lecture Notes, 1991.
Dalibard, Castin, Molmer :
 Stochastic Wave-function approach

system Reservoir  

Lesson: As long as the quantum jump probabilities are small, one can
effectively use a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian with a wave-function to describe
the dynamics.
 Atoms in cavity: Vacuum Rabi Splitting

Infact, the primary aim of experimental design for cavity QED is also to satisfy
this condition: to observe coherent atom-photon dynamics
Strong coupling condition
Atoms in cavity

Adiabatically following the

ground state manifold

κ

Eliminating the excited state (EIT)
 Eliminating the excited state (EIT)

The  “Dark  State”  is  completely  decoupled  from  the  excited  state:  
No  spontaneously  sca.ered  photons    
 Atoms in cavity

Adiabatically following the

ground state manifold
Either choose a vary good cavity
(Harcoche et. al.)

Or terminate the process, when a

photon is detected: Quantum Feedback

κ

 Feedback

!me  

The process is terminated at the instance a photon is detected out of the cavity
 Atoms in cavity: Vacuum Rabi Splitting

Diagonalize in the manifold: and

Line-width of the splitting The energy spectrum is split and

the splitting persist even for no photons!
 When can one see this? Strong coupling condition

Strong condition: Weaker condition:

 Larmor Precession of atoms in cavity

Time  
B  

Frequency    
Phys.  Rev.  Le-.,103,043601(2009).  
.  
 Strong coupling: Single atom co-operativity

Single atom cooperativity:

Universality: Independent of any details of the atoms:

Physical Systems
 Optical cavity

Two mirrors with high reflectivity placed a distance L apart

Photo Source: G. Rempe group, Max planck, Germany

How a cavity looks like

•     Laser cooled atoms

 Atoms in cavity

Video:  Thanks  to  Kimble  Lab.  

Photo Source: Nature  424,  839,  2003

 Systems
•  Trapped ions

•  Quantum dots

•  Defect centers

•  Super-conducting
Qubits

•  And several others

 Applications

“Exploring the Quantum: Atoms, Cavities and Photons” – Haroche and Raimond
 Collapse and Revival

Phys.  Rev.  Le-.,94,0104001(2009).  

.  
 SuperconducSng  qubit  
C

Josephson  tunnel  juncSons  

LJ

100  µm  
 Quantum  jumps  

Quantum jumps due to spontaneous decay

R.  Vijay,  D.H.  Slichter,    and  I.  Siddiqi    (Phys.  Rev.  Le[.  106,  110502  (2011))    
Transferring a photon from one atom to another
via a cavity

•   Measured visibility of 88 %

Nature, 449, 438 (2007).

Nature, 499, 443 (2007).
Nature Physics, 3, 765, (2007).
 Seeing Photons

ChrisSne  Guerlin,  Julien  Bernu,  Samuel  Dele´glise,  Cle´ment  Sayrin,  Se´basSen  Gleyzes,  Stefan  Kuhr,  
Michel  Brune,  Jean-­‐Michel  Raimond  and  Serge  Haroche,  Nature,  448,  889  (2007)  
 Physics  Nobel  -­‐  2012  

Serge  Haroche   Dave  Wineland  

College  de  France,  Paris   NIST  and  JILA,  Boulder,  Colorado  

The  Nobel  Prize  in  Physics  2012  was  awarded  jointly  to  Serge  Haroche  and  David  J.  
Wineland  "for  ground-­‐breaking  experimental  methods  that  enable  measuring  and  
manipula!on  of  individual  quantum  systems“  

Informa!on:  h-p://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2012/  
 Quantum Network

•  Material systems form nodes

•  Single photon channels connect the nodes
•  Motivation : Quantum cryptography, computation and
simulations
 Quantum Network

Agenda:
•  Store and retrieve single photons
•  Entangled nodes
•  Unitary operations
Cavity QED: a quantum node