No Arabic abstract
In molecular photodissociation, some specific combinations of laser parameters (wavelength and intensity) lead to unexpected Zero-Width Resonances (ZWR), with in principle infinite lifetimes. Their interest in inducing basic quenching mechanisms have recently been devised in the laser control of vibrational cooling through filtration strategies [O. Atabek et al., Phys. Rev. A87, 031403(R) (2013)]. A full quantum adiabatic control theory based on the adiabatic Floquet Hamiltonian is developed to show how a laser pulse could be envelop-shaped and frequency-chirped so as to protect a given initial vibrational state against dissociation, taking advantage from its continuous transport on the corresponding ZWR, all along the pulse duration. As compared with previous control scenarios actually suffering from non-adiabatic contamination, drastically different and much more efficient filtration goals are achieved. A semiclassical analysis helps in finding and interpreting a complete map of ZWRs in the laser parameter plane. In addition, the choice of a given ZWR path, among the complete series identified by the semiclassical approach, amounts to be crucial for the cooling scheme, targeting a single vibrational state population left at the end of the pulse, while all others have almost completely decayed. The illustrative example, offering the potentiality to be transposed to other diatomics, is Na2 prepared by photoassociation in vibrationally hot but translationally and rotationally cold states.
A semiclassical model supporting the destructive interference interpretation of zero-width resonances (ZWR) is extended to wavelengths inducing c_minus-type curve crossing situations in Na2 strong field dissociation. This opens the possibility to get critical couples of wavelengths lambda and field intensities I to reach ZWRs associated with the ground vibrationless level v = 0, that, contrary to other vibrational states (v > 0), is not attainable for the commonly referred c+-type crossings. The morphology of such ZWRs in the laser (I; lambda) parameter plane and their usefulness in filtration strategies aiming at molecular cooling down to the ground v = 0 state are examined within the frame of an adiabatic transport scheme.
We study the approach to the adiabatic limit in periodically driven systems. Specifically focusing on a spin-1/2 in a magnetic field we find that, when the parameters of the Hamiltonian lead to a quasi-degeneracy in the Floquet spectrum, the evolution is not adiabatic even if the frequency of the field is much smaller than the spectral gap of the Hamiltonian. We argue that this is a general phenomenon of periodically driven systems. Although an explanation based on a perturbation theory in $omega_0$ cannot be given, because of the singularity of the zero frequency limit, we are able to describe this phenomenon by means of a mapping to an extended Hilbert space, in terms of resonances of an effective two-band Wannier-Stark ladder. Remarkably, the phenomenon survives in the presence of dissipation towards an environment and can be therefore easily experimentally observed.
The use of periodic driving for synthesizing many-body quantum states depends crucially on the existence of a prethermal regime, which exhibits drive-tunable properties while forestalling the effects of heating. This motivates the search for direct experimental probes of the underlying localized nonergodic nature of the wave function in this metastable regime. We report experiments on a many-body Floquet system consisting of atoms in an optical lattice subjected to ultrastrong sign-changing amplitude modulation. Using a double-quench protocol we measure an inverse participation ratio quantifying the degree of prethermal localization as a function of tunable drive parameters and interactions. We obtain a complete prethermal map of the drive-dependent properties of Floquet matter spanning four square decades of parameter space. Following the full time evolution, we observe sequential formation of two prethermal plateaux, interaction-driven ergodicity, and strongly frequency-dependent dynamics of long-time thermalization. The quantitative characterization of the prethermal Floquet matter realized in these experiments, along with the demonstration of control of its properties by variation of drive parameters and interactions, opens a new frontier for probing far-from-equilibrium quantum statistical mechanics and new possibilities for dynamical quantum engineering.
H$_2^+$ is an ideal candidate for a detailed study of strong field coherent control strategies inspired by basic mechanisms referring to some specific photodissociation resonances. Two of them are considered in this work, namely: Zero-width resonances (ZWR) on one hand, and coalescing pairs of resonances at exceptional points (EP) on the other hand. An adiabatic transport theory based on Floquet Hamiltonian formalism is developed within the challenging context of multiphoton dynamics involving nuclear continua. It is shown that a rigorous treatment is only possible for ZWRs, whereas adiabatic transport mediated by EPs is subjected to restrictions. Numerical maps of resonance widths and non-adiabatic couplings in the laser parameter plane help in optimally shaping control pulses. Full time-dependent wavepacket dynamics shows the possibility of selective, robust filtration and vibrational population transfers, within experimental feasibility criteria.
We demonstrate Floquet engineering in a basic yet scalable 2D architecture of individually trapped and controlled ions. Local parametric modulations of detuned trapping potentials steer the strength of long-range inter-ion couplings and the related Peierls phase of the motional state. In our proof-of-principle, we initialize large coherent states and tune modulation parameters to control trajectories, directions and interferences of the phonon flow. Our findings open a new pathway for future Floquet-based trapped-ion quantum simulators targeting correlated topological phenomena and dynamical gauge fields.