Simple arithmetic dependencies of the velocity of the mass center motion and the root-mean-square duration of initially single-cycle, two-cycle, and Gaussian pulses with a random number of oscillations under the pulse envelope are derived depending on their center frequency, initial duration, and peak field amplitude, as well as on dispersive and nonlinear characteristics of homogeneous isotropic dielectric media. In media with normal group dispersion, it is shown that due to nonresonant dispersion the square of the few-cycle pulse duration increases with distance inversely proportional to the fourth power of the number of input pulse cycles. In media with normal group dispersion, the square of the pulse duration is inversely proportional to the number of input pulse cycles due to cubic nonlinearity. In media with anomalous group dispersion, it is shown that due to cubic nonlinearity, few-cycle pulse self-compression decreases with the reduction of the number of cycles in the initial pulse. This pulse self-compression effect has a threshold nature and terminates at a fixed number of cycles of the input pulse. Such a number of cycles is determined by the input intensity and the central frequency of the pulse, as well as by the dispersive and nonlinear characteristics of the medium.

We systematically investigate the evolution of resonant modes in a rolled-up microcavity as the overlap length between structural notches increases, which presents a modulation behavior for high $Q$ factors. The resonant modes in the rolled-up microcavity display a deterministic mode chirality, which is well correlated to the $Q$ factor. We derive a two-mode non-Hermitian Hamiltonian to clarify these unusual findings. It reveals that strong resonant interactions of scattered waves between the structural notches are responsible for the high mode chirality (thus high $Q$ factor) and its modulation behavior in rolled-up microcavities.

Inherent loss is always to be avoided in generating single photons or biphotons, but interestingly it provides opportunities for manipulating the photon wave packet. In this paper we show how inherent loss in parametric down-conversion can be employed to tailor the wave packets of single photons and biphotons. As an example, we propose a scheme to realize a single photon in a single cycle using inherent loss. Our work has potential applications in quantum communication, quantum computation, and quantum interface.

We describe a protocol by which an imaging system could be protected against jamming by a malevolent party. Our protocol not only allows recognition of the jamming, but also allows for the recovery of the true image from the jammed one. We apply the method to jamming of quantum ghost imaging, for which the jamming detection probability is increased when the imaging light is entangled. The method can also be used to provide image recovery in general noisy environments.

We investigate different geometries of spin-1/2 nitrogen impurity channels for distributing entanglement between pairs of remote nitrogen vacancy centers (NVs) in diamond. To go beyond the system size limits imposed by directly solving the master equation, we implement a matrix product operator method to describe the open system dynamics. In so doing, we provide an early demonstration of how the time-evolving block decimation algorithm can be used for answering a problem related to a real physical system that could not be accessed by other methods. For a fixed NV separation there is an interplay between incoherent impurity spin decay and coherent entanglement transfer: Long-transfer-time, few-spin systems experience strong dephasing that can be overcome by increasing the number of spins in the channel. We examine how missing spins and disorder in the coupling strengths affect the dynamics, finding that in some regimes a spin ladder is a more effective conduit for information than a single-spin chain.

Randomized benchmarking is routinely used as an efficient method for characterizing the performance of sets of elementary logic gates in small quantum devices. In the measurement-based model of quantum computation, logic gates are implemented via single-site measurements on a fixed universal resource state. Here we adapt the randomized benchmarking protocol for a single qubit to a linear cluster state computation, which provides partial, yet efficient characterization of the noise associated with the target gate set. Applying randomized benchmarking to measurement-based quantum computation exhibits an interesting interplay between the inherent randomness associated with logic gates in the measurement-based model and the random gate sequences used in benchmarking. We consider two different approaches: the first makes use of the standard single-qubit Clifford group, while the second uses recently introduced (non-Clifford) measurement-based 2-designs, which harness inherent randomness to implement gate sequences.

We demonstrate the detection of high-lying Rydberg states produced in strong laser fields with coincidence spectroscopy. Electron emission after the interaction of strong laser pulses with atoms and molecules is measured together with the parent ions in coincidence measurements. These electrons originate from high-lying Rydberg states with quantum numbers from $n\sim 20$ up to $n\lesssim 120$ formed by frustrated field ionization. Ionization rates are retrieved from the measured ionization signal of these Rydberg states. Simulations show that both tunneling ionization by a weak dc field and photoionization by blackbody radiation contribute to delayed electron emission on the nano- to microsecond scale. Furthermore, the dependence of the Rydberg-state production on the ellipticity of the driving laser field indicates that such high-lying Rydberg states are populated through electron recapture. The present experiment provides detailed quantitative information on Rydberg production in strong-field interaction.

Nonlinear and nonlocal effects are discussed in the interaction of laser fields with thermal Rydberg atoms in an electromagnetically induced transparency configuration. We assume that the system's steady state adiabatically follows the time variation in the dipole-dipole interactions due to the atomic motion and use a continuum description for the atomic medium. Based on these approximations, we obtain an analytical form for the nonlocal nonlinear atomic response of the thermal medium and study it for different parameter cases. We further propose a generalized model to describe the modulational instability (MI) in absorptive nonlinear media, in order to understand the propagation dynamics in the thermal Rydberg medium. Interestingly, this model predicts that at short propagation distances, each wave component exhibits the MI effect in absorptive nonlinear media, unlike in the purely dispersive case.

We report observation of anomalous fluorescence spectral features in the environs of a two-photon transition in a rubidium vapor when excited with two different wavelength lasers that are both counterpropagating through the vapor. These features are characterized by an unusual trade-off between the detunings of the driving fields. Three different hypothetical processes are presented to explain the observed spectra: a simultaneous three-atom and four-photon collision, a four-photon excitation involving a light field produced via amplified spontaneous emission, and population pumping perturbing the expected steady-state spectra. Numerical modeling of each hypothetical process is presented, supporting the population pumping process as the most plausible mechanism.

We study a coupled array of coherently driven photonic cavities, which maps onto a driven-dissipative XY $\text{spin-}\frac{1}{2}$ model with ferromagnetic couplings in the limit of strong optical nonlinearities. Using a site-decoupled mean-field approximation, we identify steady-state phases with canted antiferromagnetic order, in addition to limit cycle phases, where oscillatory dynamics persist indefinitely. We also identify collective bistable phases, where the system supports two steady states among spatially uniform, antiferromagnetic, and limit cycle phases. We compare these mean-field results to exact quantum trajectory simulations for finite one-dimensional arrays. The exact results exhibit short-range antiferromagnetic order for parameters that have significant overlap with the mean-field phase diagram. In the mean-field bistable regime, the exact quantum dynamics exhibits real-time collective switching between macroscopically distinguishable states. We present a clear physical picture for this dynamics and establish a simple relationship between the switching times and properties of the quantum Liouvillian.

From the Hamiltonian connecting the inside and outside of a Fabry-Pérot cavity, which is derived from the Maxwell boundary conditions at a mirror of the cavity, a master equation of a non-Lindblad form is derived when the cavity embeds matters, although we can transform it to the Lindblad form by performing the rotating-wave approximation to the connecting Hamiltonian. We calculate absorption spectra by these Lindblad and non-Lindblad master equations and also by the Maxwell boundary conditions in the framework of the classical electrodynamics, which we consider the most reliable approach. We found that, compared to the Lindblad master equation, the absorption spectra by the non-Lindblad one agree better with those by the Maxwell boundary conditions. Although the discrepancy is highlighted only in the ultrastrong light-matter interaction regime with a relatively large broadening, the master equation of the non-Lindblad form is preferable rather than of the Lindblad one for pursuing the consistency with the classical electrodynamics.

Among the many facets of quantum correlations, bound entanglement has remained one the most enigmatic phenomena, despite the fact that it was discovered in the early days of quantum information. Even its detection has proven to be difficult, let alone its precise quantitative characterization. In this work, we present the exact quantification of entanglement for a two-parameter family of highly symmetric two-qutrit mixed states, which contains a sizable part of bound entangled states. We achieve this by explicitly calculating the convex-roof extensions of the linear entropy as well as the concurrence for every state within the family. Our results provide a benchmark for future quantitative studies of bipartite entanglement in higher-dimensional systems.

Kapitza-Dirac scattering of nonrelativistic electrons from counterpropagating bichromatic laser waves of linear polarization is studied. The focus lies on the electronic spin dynamics in the Bragg regime when the laser fields possess a frequency ratio of 2. To this end, the time-dependent Pauli equation is solved numerically, both in coordinate space and momentum space. Our numerical results are corroborated by analytical derivations. We demonstrate that, for certain incident electron momenta, the scattering crucially relies on the electron spin which undergoes characteristic Rabi-like oscillations. A parameter regime is identified where the Rabi oscillations reach maximum amplitude. We also briefly discuss spin-dependent Kapitza-Dirac scattering of protons.

By presenting the evolution of a quantum state with the trajectories of the Majorana stars on the Bloch sphere, the Majorana's stellar provides an intuitive geometric picture to study a quantum system with high-dimensional Hilbert space. We study the Berry phase and quantum entanglement by distributions and motions of these stars on the Bloch sphere. It is shown that both of these unique characters of quantum state can be perfectly represented by the Majorana stars. The former is expressed by the solid angles of Majorana star loops and the distance between stars. For the latter, the distances between stars are also found to be a tool for measuring and classifying the multiparticle entanglement of a symmetric multiqubit pure state. To demonstrate our theory, we study a typical spin model which is equivalent to an interacting boson model or an interacting multiqubit system. The self-trapping phenomenon within is also discussed via the Majorana stars.

We propose an effective, scalable, hyperparallel photonic quantum computation scheme in which photonic qubits are hyperencoded both in the spatial degrees of freedom (DOF) and the polarization DOF of each photon. The deterministic hyper-controlled-not (hyper-cnot) gate on a two-photon system is attainable with our interesting interface between the polarized photon and the collective spin wave (magnon) of an atomic ensemble embedded in a double-sided optical cavity, and it doubles the operations in the conventional quantum cnot gate. Moreover, we present a compact hyper-cnot${}^N$ gate on $N+1$ hyperencoded photons with only two auxiliary cavity-magnon systems, not more, and it can be faithfully constituted with current experimental techniques. Our proposal enables various applications with the hyperencoded photons in quantum computing and quantum networks.

Quantities invariant under local unitary transformations are of natural interest in the study of entanglement. This paper deduces and studies a particularly simple quantity that is constructed from a combination of two standard permutations of the density matrix, namely, realignment and partial transpose. This bipartite quantity, denoted here as $R_{12}$, vanishes on large classes of separable states including classical-quantum correlated states, while being maximum for only maximally entangled states. It is shown to be naturally related to the 3-tangle in three-qubit states via their two-qubit reduced density matrices. Upper and lower bounds on concurrence and negativity of two-qubit density matrices for all ranks are given in terms of $R_{12}$. Ansatz states satisfying these bounds are given and verified using various numerical methods. In the rank-2 case, it is shown that the states satisfying the lower bound on $R_{12}$ versus concurrence define a class of three-qubit states that maximize the tripartite entanglement (the 3-tangle) given an amount of entanglement between a pair of them. The measure $R_{12}$ is conjectured, via numerical sampling, to be always larger than the concurrence and negativity. In particular, this is shown to be true for the physically interesting case of $X$ states.

We calculate root-mean-square radii for a three-body system confined to two spatial dimensions and consisting of two identical bosons ($A$) and one distinguishable particle ($B$). We use zero-range two-body interactions between each of the pairs, and focus thereby directly on universal properties. We solve the Faddeev equations in momentum space and express the mean-square radii in terms of first-order derivatives of the Fourier transforms of densities. The strengths of the interactions are adjusted for each set of masses to produce equal two-body bound-state energies between different pairs. The mass ratio, $\mathcal{A}=m_B/m_A$, between particles $B$ and $A$ are varied from 0.01 to 100, providing a number of bound states decreasing from 8 to 2. Energies and mean-square radii of these states are analyzed for small $\mathcal{A}$ by use of the Born-Oppenheimer potential between the two heavy $A$ particles. For large $\mathcal{A}$ the radii of the two bound states are consistent with a slightly asymmetric three-body structure. When $\mathcal{A}$ approaches thresholds for binding of the three-body excited states, the corresponding mean-square radii diverge inversely proportional to the deviation of the three-body energy from the two-body thresholds. The structures at these three-body thresholds correspond to bound $AB$ dimers and one loosely bound $A$ particle.

We completed a measurement of the Stark shift within the ${}^{115}\mathrm{In}6s_{1/2}\to 6p_{1/2}$ excited-state transition using two-step laser spectroscopy in an indium atomic beam. By combining this measurement with recent experimental results we determine the scalar polarizability ${\alpha }_0$ of the $6p_{1/2}$ state to be $7683\pm 43a_0^3$ (in atomic units), a result which agrees very well with recent theoretical calculations. In this experiment, one laser, stabilized to the $5p_{1/2}\to 6s_{1/2}410$ nm transition, was directed transversely to the atomic beam, while a second, overlapping laser was scanned across the 1343 nm $6s_{1/2}\to 6p_{1/2}$ transition. We utilized two-tone frequency-modulation spectroscopy of the infrared laser beam to measure the second-step absorption in the interaction region, where the optical depth is less than ${10}^{-3}$. In the course of our experimental work we also determined the hyperfine splitting within the $6p_{1/2}$ state, improving upon the precision of an existing measurement.

Variational ab initio $R$-matrix theory combined with generalized multichannel quantum defect theory is used to calculate singly excited Rydberg states of the hydrohelium molecular ion, ${\mathrm{HeH}}^{+}$, for ${}^{1,3}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{+},{}^{1,3}\mathrm{\Pi },{}^{1,3}\mathrm{\Delta },{}^{1,3}\mathrm{\Phi }$, and ${}^{1,3}\mathrm{\Gamma }$ symmetry. Bound levels are calculated for $n$ values up to $n\approx 10$, and continuum states up to $\approx 3$ eV above the ${\mathrm{HeH}}^{2+}$ threshold. The calculations span the range of internuclear distances $R$ from 1 to 5 bohrs. The present work follows a preliminary study on the ${}^{1,3}\mathrm{\Delta }$ states of ${\mathrm{HeH}}^{+}$ [Bouhali, Bezzaouia, Telmini, and Jungen, EPJ Web Conf. 84, 04004 (2015)] which was also based on $R$-matrix theory. Further—although limited to rather small $R$ values—the present work extends the recent ab initio computations of Jungen and Jungen [Mol. Phys. 113, 2333 (2015)] to higher excitation energies which are not accessible to standard quantum-chemical methods. Where a comparison with the calculations of Jungen and Jungen and other older results can be made, namely for $n\le 5$, very good agreement with previous ab initio results is obtained.

We study few-cycle, strong-field dissociation of aligned ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{+}$ by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation including rotation. We examine the dependence of the final angular distribution, the kinetic energy release spectrum, and the total dissociation yield on the initial nuclear angular distribution. In particular, we look at the dependence on the relative angle ${\theta }_0$ between the laser polarization and the symmetry axis of a well-aligned initial distribution, as well as the dependence on the delay between the “pump” pulse that prepares the alignment and the few-cycle probe pulse. Surprisingly, we find the dissociation probability for ${\theta }_0={90}^{\circ }$ can be appreciable even though the transitions involved are purely parallel. We therefore address the limits of the commonly held “ball-and-stick” picture for molecules in intense fields as well as the validity of the axial recoil approximation.