Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Probing quantum statistics with coherent control of rotating ion crystals

Presenting Author: Neil Glikin, University of California Berkeley
Contributing Author(s): Erik Urban, Sara Mouradian, Hartmut Haeffner

The symmetrization of identical quantum particles has been elegantly demonstrated in many ways, including by the creation of degenerate quantum gases, by direct spectroscopy of systems of molecules, and by Hong-Ou-Mandel-type interference. I will outline a unique demonstration of the symmetrization postulate by way of direct, coherent exchange of a single pair of trapped ions, and describe experiments and progress towards this goal. Such an exchange can be performed by preparing a coherent superposition of many-body rotational states and waiting for an appropriate exchange time. We create a planar quantum rotor with a pair of calcium-40 ions in a circularly symmetric surface-electrode Paul trap, and demonstrate coherent control of the state of this rotor. We furthermore study the decoherence of such states in the presence of environmental noise, finding agreement with recent theory of open quantum rotor systems. By moving into a regime of long rotational coherence times, we aim to use this control to perform direct particle exchange, allowing us to study the emergence of indistinguishability even for particles which are always separated by many micrometers.

Read this article online: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.133202

(Session 5 : Saturday from 5:00pm - 7:00pm)