Transcript Slide 1

Aiming at Quantum Information
Processing on an Atom Chip
Caspar Ockeloen
Outline
• Quantum Information with Ultracold Atoms
• Magnetic lattice atom chip
• Atom number fluctuations
• Conclusion
Quantum Information
Requirements:
• Scalable
• Long coherence time
• Nearest neighbor interactions
Ultracold Atoms
Kelvin
–
103 –
102 –
101 –
1–
10-1 –
10-2 –
10-3 –
10-4 –
10-5 –
10-6 –
10-7 –
104
– Solar surface
– Room temperature
– High TC superconductor
– Liquid Helium
– Ultracold atoms
• Clean and isolated
Quantum systems
• Coherence time
up to 1 minute!
Magnetic lattice atom chip
Magnetic trapping
Magnetic FePt film
+
External B-field
Rubidium atoms (mK)
10-1000 atoms per trap
Lattice of ~500 traps
Goal: each trap ↔ 1 qubit
Magnetic lattice atom chip
Trapping and manipulating atoms
• Ultra high vacuum + atom chip
• Lasers + magnetic field trap atoms
• Cooled to several mK
B
B
• Transfer atoms to microtraps
p=ħk
• Image atoms with CCD camera
CCD
Absorption Imaging
Absorption image of full lattice
CCD
Atom chip
S. Whtilock et al “Two-dimensional array of microtraps with atomic shift register on a chip”, NJP, (2009)
Single site manipulation
• Optically address
single sites
• Transport all atoms
across the lattice
How to make qubits?
Collective excitations
• One excitation shared over ensemble
• Highly entangled state
• Potentially more robust and faster
• Excitation rate depends on atom number
Requires small and well defined ensembles of atoms
Classical limit: Shot Noise
• Atoms are discrete particles
• Poisson distribution: N ± √N atoms
Three-body loss
• Dominant loss process
• Three atoms → Molecule + Free atom
• 3-body interaction: density dependent
Three-body loss
Effects on atom number distribution
Initial distribution
3-body loss
Poisson distribution
Poisson distribution
N = 100 sN = 10
Three-body loss
Mean atom number
Fluctuations
F =0.6
Fano factor:
F = 1 ↔ Poisson
Mean atom number
(a)
Fluctuations
Sub-Poissonian!
S. Whitlock, C. Ockeloen, R.J.C Spreeuw, PRL 104, 120402 (2010)
Fluctuations
F = 0.5 ± 0.2
for 50 < N < 300
Not limited by technical noise
Fluctuations below classical limit
Promise for high fidelity operations
Ideal starting point for Quantum Information
Conclusions
Magnetic lattice atom chip
> 500 atom clouds
Optically resolved and addressable
Sub-Poissonian atom number fluctuations
F = 0.5 ± 0.2
Promising platform for Quantum Information
Outlook
• Long range interactions
• New lattice design
– New geometries
– 5 mm spacing
– In vacuum imaging
• Quantum Computer...
Thank you
S. Whitlock, C. Ockeloen, R.J.C Spreeuw, “Sub-Poissonian AtomNumber Fluctuations by Three-Body Loss in Mesoscopic Ensembles,”
Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 120402 (2010)
S Whitlock, R Gerritsma, T Fernholz and R J C Spreeuw, “Twodimensional array of microtraps with atomic shift register on a chip,”
New J. Phys. 11, 023021 (2009)