Publikationen Abteilung Theorie

Diese Seite zeigt alle Veröffentlichungen der MPL Theorieabteilung, beginnend 2016, inklusive aller zugehöriger Forschungsgruppen. Die individuellen Veröffentlichungslisten finden Sie auf den Seiten der Gruppen MarquardtKrenn und Wanjura.

2017

Cavity optomechanics in a levitated helium drop

Cavity optomechanics in a levitated helium drop

L. Childress, M. P. Schmidt, A. D. Kashkanova, C. D. Brown, G. I. Harris, Andrea Aiello, Florian Marquardt, J. G. E. Harris

Physical Review A 96 (6) 063842 (2017) | Journal | PDF

We describe a proposal for a type of optomechanical system based on a drop of liquid helium that ismagnetically levitated in vacuum. In the proposed device, the drop would serve three roles: its optical whispering-gallery modes would provide the optical cavity, its surface vibrations would constitute the mechanical element, and evaporation of He atoms from its surface would provide continuous refrigeration. We analyze the feasibility of such a system in light of previous experimental demonstrations of its essential components: magnetic levitation of mm-scale and cm-scale drops of liquid He, evaporative cooling of He droplets in vacuum, and coupling to high-quality optical whispering-gallery modes in a wide range of liquids. We find that the combination of these features could result in a device that approaches the single-photon strong-coupling regime, due to the high optical quality factors attainable at low temperatures. Moreover, the system offers a unique opportunity to use optical techniques to study the motion of a superfluid that is freely levitating in vacuum (in the case of He-4). Alternatively, for a normal fluid drop of He-3, we propose to exploit the coupling between the drop's rotations and vibrations to perform quantum nondemolition measurements of angular momentum.

L lines, C points and Chern numbers: understanding band structure topology using polarization fields

L lines, C points and Chern numbers: understanding band structure topology using polarization fields

Thomas Fösel, Vittorio Peano, Florian Marquardt

New Journal of Physics 19 115013 (2017) | Journal | PDF

Topology has appeared in different physical contexts. The most prominent application is topologically protected edge transport in condensed matter physics. The Chern number, the topological invariant of gapped Bloch Hamiltonians, is an important quantity in this field. Another example of topology, in polarization physics, are polarization singularities, called L lines and C points. By establishing a connection between these two theories, we develop a novel technique to visualize and potentially measure the Chern number: it can be expressed either as the winding of the polarization azimuth along L lines in reciprocal space, or in terms of the handedness and the index of the C points. For mechanical systems, this is directly connected to the visible motion patterns.

General Linearized Theory of Quantum Fluctuations around Arbitrary Limit Cycles

General Linearized Theory of Quantum Fluctuations around Arbitrary Limit Cycles

Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Talitha Weiss, Stefan Walter, Germán J. de Valcarcel

Physical Review Letters 119 (13) 133601 (2017) | Journal | PDF

The theory of Gaussian quantum fluctuations around classical steady states in nonlinear quantum-optical systems (also known as standard linearization) is a cornerstone for the analysis of such systems. Its simplicity, together with its accuracy far from critical points or situations where the nonlinearity reaches the strong coupling regime, has turned it into a widespread technique, being the first method of choice in most works on the subject. However, such a technique finds strong practical and conceptual complications when one tries to apply it to situations in which the classical long-time solution is time dependent, a most prominent example being spontaneous limit-cycle formation. Here, we introduce a linearization scheme adapted to such situations, using the driven Van der Pol oscillator as a test bed for the method, which allows us to compare it with full numerical simulations. On a conceptual level, the scheme relies on the connection between the emergence of limit cycles and the spontaneous breaking of the symmetry under temporal translations. On the practical side, the method keeps the simplicity and linear scaling with the size of the problem (number of modes) characteristic of standard linearization, making it applicable to large (many-body) systems.

Unraveling beam self-healing

Unraveling beam self-healing

Andrea Aiello, Girish S. Agarwal, Martin Paur, Bohumil Stoklasa, Zdenek Hradil, Jaroslav Rehacek, Pablo de la Hoz, Gerd Leuchs, Luis L. Sanchez-Soto

Optics Express 25 (16) 19147-19157 (2017) | Journal | PDF

We show that, contrary to popular belief, diffraction-free beams not only may reconstruct themselves after hitting an opaque obstacle but also, for example, Gaussian beams. We unravel the mathematics and the physics underlying the self-reconstruction mechanism and we provide for a novel definition for the minimum reconstruction distance beyond geometric optics, which is in principle applicable to any optical beam that admits an angular spectrum representation. Moreover, we propose to quantify the self-reconstruction ability of a beam via a newly established degree of self-healing. This is defined via a comparison between the amplitudes, as opposite to intensities, of the original beam and the obstructed one. Such comparison is experimentally accomplished by tailoring an innovative experimental technique based upon Shack-Hartmann wave front reconstruction. We believe that these results can open new avenues in this field. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America

From Kardar-Parisi-Zhang scaling to explosive desynchronization in arrays of limit-cycle oscillators

From Kardar-Parisi-Zhang scaling to explosive desynchronization in arrays of limit-cycle oscillators

Roland Lauter, Aditi Mitra, Florian Marquardt

Physical Review E 96 (1) 012220 (2017) | Journal | PDF

Phase oscillator lattices subject to noise are one of the most fundamental systems in nonequilibrium physics. We have discovered a dynamical transition which has a significant impact on the synchronization dynamics in such lattices, as it leads to an explosive increase of the phase diffusion rate by orders of magnitude. Our analysis is based on the widely applicable Kuramoto-Sakaguchi model, with local couplings between oscillators. For one-dimensional lattices, we observe the universal evolution of the phase spread that is suggested by a connection to the theory of surface growth, as described by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) model. Moreover, we are able to explain the dynamical transition both in one and two dimensions by connecting it to an apparent finite-time singularity in a related KPZ lattice model. Our findings have direct consequences for the frequency stability of coupled oscillator lattices.Phase oscillator lattices subject to noise are one of the most fundamental systems in nonequilibrium physics. We have discovered a dynamical transition which has a significant impact on the synchronization dynamics in such lattices, as it leads to an explosive increase of the phase diffusion rate by orders of magnitude. Our analysis is based on the widely applicable Kuramoto-Sakaguchi model, with local couplings between oscillators. For one-dimensional lattices, we observe the universal evolution of the phase spread that is suggested by a connection to the theory of surface growth, as described by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) model. Moreover, we are able to explain the dynamical transition both in one and two dimensions by connecting it to an apparent finite-time singularity in a related KPZ lattice model. Our findings have direct consequences for the frequency stability of coupled oscillator lattices.

Synchronization of an optomechanical system to an external drive

Synchronization of an optomechanical system to an external drive

Ehud Amitai, Niels Loerch, Andreas Nunnenkamp, Stefan Walter, Christoph Bruder

Physical Review A 95 (5) 053858 (2017) | Journal | PDF

Optomechanical systems driven by an effective blue-detuned laser can exhibit self-sustained oscillations of the mechanical oscillator. These self-oscillations are a prerequisite for the observation of synchronization. Here, we study the synchronization of the mechanical oscillations to an external reference drive. We study two cases of reference drives: (1) an additional laser applied to the optical cavity; (2) a mechanical drive applied directly to the mechanical oscillator. Starting from a master equation description, we derive a microscopic Adler equation for both cases, valid in the classical regime in which the quantum shot noise of the mechanical self-oscillator does not play a role. Furthermore, we numerically show that, in both cases, synchronization arises also in the quantum regime. The optomechanical system is therefore a good candidate for the study of quantum synchronization.

Quantum-coherent phase oscillations in synchronization

Quantum-coherent phase oscillations in synchronization

Talitha Weiss, Stefan Walter, Florian Marquardt

Physical Review A 95 (4) 041802 (2017) | Journal | PDF

Recently, several studies have investigated synchronization in quantum-mechanical limit-cycle oscillators. However, the quantum nature of these systems remained partially hidden, since the dynamics of the oscillator's phase was overdamped and therefore incoherent. We show that there exist regimes of underdamped and even quantum-coherent phase motion, opening up new possibilities to study quantum synchronization dynamics. To this end, we investigate the Van der Pol oscillator (a paradigm for a self-oscillating system) synchronized to an external drive. We derive an effective quantum model which fully describes the regime of underdamped phase motion and additionally allows us to identify the quality of quantum coherence. Finally, we identify quantum limit cycles of the phase itself.

Many-Particle Dephasing after a Quench

Many-Particle Dephasing after a Quench

Thomas Kiendl, Florian Marquardt

Physical Review Letters 118 (13) 130601 (2017) | Journal | PDF

After a quench in a quantum many-body system, expectation values tend to relax towards long-time averages. However, temporal fluctuations remain in the long-time limit, and it is crucial to study the suppression of these fluctuations with increasing system size. The particularly important case of nonintegrable models has been addressed so far only by numerics and conjectures based on analytical bounds. In this work, we are able to derive analytical predictions for the temporal fluctuations in a nonintegrable model (the transverse Ising chain with extra terms). Our results are based on identifying a dynamical regime of "many-particle dephasing,"where quasiparticles do not yet relax but fluctuations are nonetheless suppressed exponentially by weak integrability breaking.

Pseudomagnetic fields for sound at the nanoscale

Pseudomagnetic fields for sound at the nanoscale

Christian Brendel, Vittorio Peano, Oskar J. Painter, Florian Marquardt

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114 (17) E3390-E3395 | Journal | PDF

There is a growing effort in creating chiral transport of sound waves. However, most approaches so far have been confined to the macroscopic scale. Here, we propose an approach suitable to the nanoscale that is based on pseudomagnetic fields. These pseudomagnetic fields for sound waves are the analogue of what electrons experience in strained graphene. In our proposal, they are created by simple geometrical modifications of an existing and experimentally proven phononic crystal design, the snowflake crystal. This platform is robust, scalable, and well-suited for a variety of excitation and readout mechanisms, among them optomechanical approaches.

Generalized non-reciprocity in an optomechanical circuit via synthetic magnetism and reservoir engineering

Generalized non-reciprocity in an optomechanical circuit via synthetic magnetism and reservoir engineering

Kejie Fang, Jie Luo, Anja Metelmann, Matthew H. Matheny, Florian Marquardt, Aashish A. Clerk, Oskar Painter

Nature Physics 13 (5) 465-471 (2017) | Journal

Synthetic magnetism has been used to control charge neutral excitations for applications ranging from classical beam steering to quantum simulation. In optomechanics, radiation-pressure-induced parametric coupling between optical (photon) and mechanical (phonon) excitations may be used to break time-reversal symmetry, providing the prerequisite for synthetic magnetism. Here we design and fabricate a silicon optomechanical circuit with both optical and mechanical connectivity between two optomechanical cavities. Driving the two cavities with phase-correlated laser light results in a synthetic magnetic flux, which, in combination with dissipative coupling to the mechanical bath, leads to non-reciprocal transport of photons with 35 dB of isolation. Additionally, optical pumping with blue-detuned light manifests as a particle non-conserving interaction between photons and phonons, resulting in directional optical amplification of 12 dB in the isolator through-direction. These results suggest the possibility of using optomechanical circuits to create a more general class of non-reciprocal optical devices, and further, to enable new topological phases for both light and sound on a microchip.

Anderson localization of composite excitations in disordered optomechanical arrays

Anderson localization of composite excitations in disordered optomechanical arrays

Thales Figueiredo Roque, Vittorio Peano, Oleg M. Yevtushenko, Florian Marquardt

New Journal of Physics 19 013006 (2017) | Journal | PDF

Optomechanical (OMA) arrays are a promising future platform for studies of transport, many-body dynamics, quantum control and topological effects in systems of coupled photon and phonon modes. We introduce disordered OMA arrays, focusing on features of Anderson localization of hybrid photon-phonon excitations. It turns out that these represent a unique disordered system, where basic parameters can be easily controlled by varying the frequency and the amplitude of an external laser field. We show that the two-species setting leads to a non-trivial frequency dependence of the localization length for intermediate laser intensities. This could serve as a convincing evidence of localization in a non-equilibrium dissipative situation.

Noncritical generation of nonclassical frequency combs via spontaneous rotational symmetry breaking

Noncritical generation of nonclassical frequency combs via spontaneous rotational symmetry breaking

Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Giuseppe Patera, Germán J. de Valcarcel

Physical Review A 96 (4) 043801 (2017) | Journal | PDF

Synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (SPOPOs) are optical cavities driven by mode-locked lasers, and containing a nonlinear crystal capable of down-converting a frequency comb to lower frequencies. SPOPOs have received a lot of attention lately because their intrinsic multimode nature makes them compact sources of quantum correlated light with promising applications in modern quantum information technologies. In this work we show that SPOPOs are also capable of accessing the challenging and interesting regime where spontaneous symmetry breaking confers strong nonclassical properties to the emitted light, which has eluded experimental observation so far. Apart from opening the possibility of studying experimentally this elusive regime of dissipative phase transitions, our predictions will have a practical impact, since we show that spontaneous symmetry breaking provides a specific spatiotemporal mode with large quadrature squeezing for any value of the system parameters, turning SPOPOs into robust sources of highly nonclassical light above threshold.

Linear and angular momenta in tightly focused vortex segmented beams of light

Linear and angular momenta in tightly focused vortex segmented beams of light

Martin Neugebauer, Andrea Aiello, Peter Banzer

Chinese Optics Letters 15 (3) 030003 (2017) | Journal | PDF

We investigate the linear momentum density of light, which can be decomposed into spin and orbital parts, in the complex three-dimensional field distributions of tightly focused vortex segmented beams. The chosen angular spectrum exhibits two spatially separated vortices of opposite charge and orthogonal circular polarization to generate phase vortices in a meridional plane of observation. In the vicinity of those vortices, regions of negative orbital linear momentum occur. Besides these phase vortices, the occurrence of transverse orbital angular momentum manifests in a vortex charge-dependent relative shift of the energy density and linear momentum density.

Max-Planck-Zentren und -Schulen