Absolute total cross section (TCS) for electron scattering by boron trichloride $\left(\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{Cl}}_3\right)$ molecules has been measured in a linear transmission method under single collision conditions. Measurements have been performed within electron energy range from 0.3 to 370 eV. The TCS energy function for $\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{Cl}}_3$ is dominated with very pronounced enhancement peaked near 10 eV ($61\times {10}^{-20}{\mathrm{m}}^2$ in the maximum). Low-energy slope of the enhancement is superimposed with two resonantlike structures located near 3.2 and 6.0 eV. On the descending high-energy side of the TCS curve only a weak shoulder between 30 and 60 eV is discernible. The present TCS is compared with the existing experimental and calculated cross sections for particular $e^{-}\text{−}\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{Cl}}_3$ scattering processes. Furthermore, the TCS for $\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{Cl}}_3$ is also confronted with the TCS for $\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{F}}_3$ and the role of peripheral atoms in molecule is indicated and discussed.

We consider dissipative dynamics of atoms in a strong standing laser wave and find a nonlinear dynamical effect of synchronization between center-of-mass motion and internal Rabi oscillations. The synchronization manifests itself in the phase space as limit cycles, which may have different periods and riddled basins of attraction. The effect can be detected in fluorescence spectra of atoms as equidistant sideband frequencies with the space between adjacent peaks to be inversely proportional to the value of the period of the respective limit cycle. With increasing intensity of the laser field, we numerically observe cascades of bifurcations that eventually end up in settling a strange chaotic attractor. A broadband noise is shown to destroy a fine structure of the bifurcation scenario, but prominent features of period-1 and period-3 limit cycles survive under a weak noise. The character of the atomic motion is analyzed with the help of the friction force whose zeroes are attractor or repellor points in the velocity space. We find ranges of the laser parameters where the atomic motion resembles a random but deterministic walking of atoms erratically jumping between different wells of the optical potential. Such a random walking is shown to be fractal.

We show that the transfer of the angular spectrum of the pump beam to the two-photon state in spontaneous parametric down-conversion enables the generation of entangled Hermite-Gaussian modes. We derive an analytical expression for the two-photon state in terms of these modes and show that there are restrictions on both the parity and order of the down-converted Hermite-Gaussian fields. Using these results, we show that the two-photon state is indeed entangled in Hermite-Gaussian modes. We propose experimental methods of creating maximally-entangled Bell states and nonmaximally entangled pure states of first order Hermite-Gaussian modes.

We have performed angle-resolved measurements of spontaneous-emission spectra from laser dyes and quantum dots in opal and inverse opal photonic crystals. Pronounced directional dependencies of the emission spectra are observed: angular ranges of strongly reduced emission adjoin with angular ranges of enhanced emission. It appears that emission from embedded light sources is affected both by the periodicity and by the structural imperfections of the crystals: the photons are Bragg diffracted by lattice planes and scattered by unavoidable structural disorder. Using a model comprising diffuse light transport and photonic band structure, we quantitatively explain the directional emission spectra. This work provides detailed understanding of the transport of spontaneously emitted light in real photonic crystals, which is essential in the interpretation of quantum optics in photonic-band-gap crystals and for applications wherein directional emission and total emission power are controlled.

We show how to prepare a variety of cavity field states for multiple cavities. The state preparation technique used is related to the method of stimulated adiabatic Raman passage. The cavity modes are coupled by atoms, making it possible to transfer an arbitrary cavity field state from one cavity to another and also to prepare nontrivial cavity field states. In particular, we show how to prepare entangled states of two or more cavities, such as an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen state and a $W$ state, as well as various entangled superpositions of coherent states in different cavities, including Schrödinger cat states. The theoretical considerations are supported by numerical simulations.

We discuss a family of quasidistributions ($s$-ordered Wigner functions of Agarwal and Wolf [Phys. Rev. D 2, 2161 (1970); Phys. Rev. D 2, 2187 (1970); Phys. Rev. D 2, 2206 (1970)]) and its connection to the so-called phase space representation of the Schrödinger equation. It turns out that although Wigner functions satisfy the Schrödinger equation in phase space, they have a completely different interpretation.

We obtain a collection of necessary (sufficient) conditions for a bipartite system of qubits to be separable (entangled), which are based on the Landau-Pollak formulation of the uncertainty principle. These conditions are tested and compared with previously stated criteria by applying them to states whose separability limits are already known. Our results are also extended to multipartite and higher-dimensional systems.

In this work, we investigate how and to which extent a quantum system can be driven along a prescribed path in Hilbert space by a suitably shaped laser pulse. To calculate the optimal, i.e., the variationally best pulse, a properly defined functional is maximized. This leads to a monotonically convergent algorithm which is computationally not more expensive than the standard optimal-control techniques to push a system, without specifying the path, from a given initial to a given final state. The method is successfully applied to drive the time-dependent density along a given trajectory in real space and to control the time-dependent occupation numbers of a two-level system and of a one-dimensional model for the hydrogen atom.

We consider the propagation of a Gaussian probe pulse in an absorptive, optically dense, two-level medium if a deep, persistent hole is created in advance by another pump field in the inhomogeneously broadened absorption spectrum of this medium. Both fields are well separated in time and the lifetime of the hole is assumed to be long with respect to the delay time between the pump and probe pulses. We show that the group velocity of the Gaussian probe pulse reduces several orders in magnitude, similarly to the reduction of the group velocity for the probe field in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) phenomena. In contrast to EIT, the width of the transparency window can be made very wide because of the saturation broadening of the hole.

We consider the system of two interacting atoms confined in axially symmetric harmonic trap. Within the pseudopotential approximation, we solve the Schrödinger 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 us to extend the validity of our results to the case of tight traps and large scattering lengths.

We investigate the influence of two resonant laser beams on the mechanical properties of degenerate atomic gases. The control and probe beams of light are considered to have orbital angular momenta (OAM) and act on the three-level atoms in the electromagnetically induced transparency configuration. The theory is based on the explicit analysis of the quantum dynamics of cold atoms coupled with two laser beams. Using the adiabatic approximation, we obtain an effective equation of motion for the atoms driven to the dark state. The equation contains a vector-potential-type interaction as well as an effective trapping potential. The effective magnetic field is shown to be oriented along the propagation direction of the control and probe beams containing OAM. Its spatial profile can be controlled by choosing proper laser beams. We demonstrate how to generate a constant effective magnetic field, as well as a field exhibiting a radial distance dependence. The resulting effective magnetic field can be concentrated within a region where the effective trapping potential holds the atoms. The estimated magnetic length can be considerably smaller than the size of the atomic cloud.

Quantum state estimation has been widely investigated and there are mainly two approaches proposed: One is based on the point estimation of an unknown parameter and the other is based on the Bayesian method. We adopt the relative entropy from the true state to a predictive density operator as a loss function. We consider exchangeable quantum models with an arbitrary chosen measurement and show that Bayesian predictive density operators are the best predictive density operators when we evaluate them by using the average relative entropy based on a prior. This result is a quantum version of Aitchison’s result in classical statistics.

We present an analysis of the quantum adiabatic algorithm for solving hard instances of 3-SAT (an NP-complete problem) in terms of random matrix theory (RMT). We determine the global regularity of the spectral fluctuations of the instantaneous Hamiltonians encountered during the interpolation between the starting Hamiltonians and the ones whose ground states encode the solutions to the computational problems of interest. At each interpolation point, we quantify the degree of regularity of the average spectral distribution via its Brody parameter, a measure that distinguishes regular (i.e., Poissonian) from chaotic (i.e., Wigner-type) distributions of normalized nearest-neighbor spacings. We find that for hard problem instances—i.e., those having a critical ratio of clauses to variables—the spectral fluctuations typically become irregular across a contiguous region of the interpolation parameter, while the spectrum is regular for easy instances. Within the hard region, RMT may be applied to obtain a mathematical model of the probability of avoided level crossings and concomitant failure rate of the adiabatic algorithm due to nonadiabatic Landau-Zener-type transitions. Our model predicts that if the interpolation is performed at a uniform rate, the average failure rate of the quantum adiabatic algorithm, when averaged over hard problem instances, scales exponentially with increasing problem size.

Quantum mechanical calculations are performed of the emission and absorption profiles of the lithium $2s\text{−}2p$ resonance line under the influence of a helium perturbing gas. We use carefully constructed potential energy surfaces and transition dipole moments to compute the emission and absorption coefficients at temperatures from $200\text{to}3000\mathrm{K}$ at wavelengths between $500\mathrm{nm}$ and $1000\mathrm{nm}$. Contributions from quasibound states are included. The resulting red and blue wing profiles are compared with previous theoretical calculations and with an experiment, carried out at a temperature of $670\mathrm{K}$.

We describe a numerical method used previously [Phys. Rev. A 70, 011404(R) (2004)] for solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation for ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{+}$ (with fixed nuclei) in interaction with an intense, arbitrary oriented laser pulse. In this approach, we use the prolate spheroidal coordinate system, and expand the time-dependent wave function in a complex basis of Laguerre polynomials and Legendre functions. Our results indicate that ionization, excitation, and harmonic generation are strongly influenced by the orientation of the molecular axis with respect to the laser polarization axis. We evaluate the contribution of each nucleus to harmonic generation, as this permits a quantitative and nonambiguous assessment of interference effects as a function of molecular orientation. A time-profile analysis, using a Gabor transform of the harmonic spectrum around certain harmonics, shows that every half-cycle high-order harmonics are emitted by each nucleus when the electron wave packet returns for a recollision with the molecular core, thus confirming the strong field recollision model in molecules. In general, each nucleus emits both odd and even harmonics, but even harmonics are destroyed by interferences between contributions of each nucleus. These interferences are shown to be maximum at certain harmonic orders as a function of molecular orientation. A comparison of acceleration and dipole formulations of the harmonic emission process is made in order to assess the use of high-order harmonic generation for electron wave-function imaging.

In atom optics a material structure is commonly regarded as an amplitude mask for atom waves. However, atomic diffraction patterns formed using material gratings indicate that material structures also operate as phase masks. In this study a well collimated beam of sodium atoms is used to illuminate a silicon nitride grating with a period of 100 nm. During passage through the grating slots atoms acquire a phase shift due to the van der Waals (vdW) interaction with the grating walls. As a result the relative intensities of the matter-wave diffraction peaks deviate from those expected for a purely absorbing grating. Thus a complex transmission function is required to explain the observed diffraction envelopes. An optics perspective to the theory of atomic diffraction from material gratings is put forth in the hopes of providing a more intuitive picture concerning the influence of the vdW potential. The van der Waals coefficient $C_3=2.7\pm 0.8\mathrm{meV}{\mathrm{nm}}^3$ is determined by fitting a modified Fresnel optical theory to the experimental data. This value of $C_3$ is consistent with a van der Waals interaction between atomic sodium and a silicon nitride surface.

A quantitative measure of the pairing correlations present in a cold gas of fermionic atoms can be obtained by studying the dependence of rf spectra on hyperfine-state populations. This proposal follows from a sum rule that relates the total interaction energy of the gas to rf spectrum line positions. We argue that this indicator of pairing correlations provides information comparable to that available from the spin-susceptibility and NMR measurements common in condensed-matter systems.

A passively mode-locked fiber laser is theoretically investigated. The mode locking is achieved using the nonlinear polarization technique. We consider the practical case of the ytterbium-doped fiber laser operating in the normal dispersion regime. The effect of the phase plates is explicitly taken into account. The resulting model reduces to one iterative equation for the optical Kerr nonlinearity, the phase plates and the polarizer, and one partial differential equation for the gain and the dispersion. Numerical simulations allow us to describe several features observed in passively mode-locked fiber lasers such as bistability between the mode lock and the continuous regime, multiple pulse behavior, hysteresis phenomena. The dynamics of the number of pulses as a function of the pumping power is also reported. Pump power hysteresis is demonstrated.

The nonresonant dynamic Stark effect (NRDSE) is investigated as a general tool for quantum control in the intermediate field strength regime (nonperturbative but nonionizing). We illustrate this scheme for the case of nonadiabatic molecular photodissociation at an avoided crossing. Using the NRDSE exclusively, both the electronic branching ratio and predissociation lifetime may be controlled. Infrared control pulses are used to modify the field-free dynamical evolution during traversal of the avoided crossing, thus controlling the nonadiabatic branching ratio. Predissociation lifetimes may be either increased or decreased using properly timed short infrared pulses to modify phase differences between the diabatic wave packets. In contrast with the limiting cases of perturbative control (interference between transitions) and strong field control with ionizing laser fields, control via the NRDSE may be thought of as reversibly modifying the effective Hamiltonian during system propagation.