Probing rotational decoherence with a trapped-ion planar rotor

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Glikin, Neil, Stickler, Benjamin A., Tollefsen, Ryan, Mouradian, Sara, Yadav, Neha, Urban, Erik, Hornberger, Klaus, Haeffner, Hartmut
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910798764310528
author Glikin, Neil
Stickler, Benjamin A.
Tollefsen, Ryan
Mouradian, Sara
Yadav, Neha
Urban, Erik
Hornberger, Klaus
Haeffner, Hartmut
author_facet Glikin, Neil
Stickler, Benjamin A.
Tollefsen, Ryan
Mouradian, Sara
Yadav, Neha
Urban, Erik
Hornberger, Klaus
Haeffner, Hartmut
contents The quantum rotor is one of the simplest model systems in quantum mechanics, but only in recent years has theoretical work revealed general fundamental scaling laws for its decoherence. For example, a superposition of orientations decoheres at a rate proportional to the sine squared of the angle between them. Here we observe scaling laws for rotational decoherence dynamics for the first time, using a 4-micrometer diameter planar rotor composed of two Paul-trapped ions. We prepare the rotational motion of the ion crystal into superpositions of angular momentum with well-defined differences ranging from 1-3 $\hbar$, and measure the rate of decoherence. We also tune the system-environment interaction strength by introducing resonant electric field noise. The observed scaling relationships for decoherence are in excellent agreement with recent theoretical work, and are directly relevant to the growing development of rotor-based quantum applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_13293
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Probing rotational decoherence with a trapped-ion planar rotor
Glikin, Neil
Stickler, Benjamin A.
Tollefsen, Ryan
Mouradian, Sara
Yadav, Neha
Urban, Erik
Hornberger, Klaus
Haeffner, Hartmut
Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
The quantum rotor is one of the simplest model systems in quantum mechanics, but only in recent years has theoretical work revealed general fundamental scaling laws for its decoherence. For example, a superposition of orientations decoheres at a rate proportional to the sine squared of the angle between them. Here we observe scaling laws for rotational decoherence dynamics for the first time, using a 4-micrometer diameter planar rotor composed of two Paul-trapped ions. We prepare the rotational motion of the ion crystal into superpositions of angular momentum with well-defined differences ranging from 1-3 $\hbar$, and measure the rate of decoherence. We also tune the system-environment interaction strength by introducing resonant electric field noise. The observed scaling relationships for decoherence are in excellent agreement with recent theoretical work, and are directly relevant to the growing development of rotor-based quantum applications.
title Probing rotational decoherence with a trapped-ion planar rotor
topic Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.13293