Dead-zone-free atomic magnetometry with simultaneous excitation of orientation and alignment resonances.

Atomic magnetometers have very high absolute precision and sensitivity to magnetic fields but suffer from a fundamental problem: the vectorial or tensorial interaction of light with atoms leads to "dead zones," certain orientations of the magnetic field where the magnetometer loses its sensitivity. We demonstrate a simple polarization modulation scheme that simultaneously creates coherent population trapping (CPT) in orientation and alignment, thereby eliminating dead zones. Using 87Rb in a 10 Torr buffer gas cell we measure narrow, high-contrast CPT transparency peaks for all orientations and also show the absence of systematic effects associated with nonlinear Zeeman splitting.

Feasibility of a nitrogen-recombination soft-x-ray laser using capillary discharge Z pinch.

Capillary discharge Z pinches have been shown to be efficient drivers for x-ray lasers (XRLs). In this work we examine the possibility of realizing a H_{alpha} nitrogen recombination laser ( 3-->2 transition) at lambda=13.4nm , using a capillary discharge Z pinch. A pulsed power generator with 60kA peak current and 70ns quarter period have been used to generate Z -pinch plasma in a 90-mm -long and 5-mm -diameter capillary. The plasma conditions were evaluated experimentally, using a filtered x-ray diode detector and time-integrated spectroscopy. The conditions required for the XRL were analytically estimated based on simple steady-state rate equations and then compared to experimental results. We demonstrated above 10% N7+ abundance at pinch time, while at least 50% is required. Then, in the expansion phase, the plasma is cooled in a time less than 5ns to temperatures below 60eV , as needed for the recombination laser. These results suggest that the required conditions for nitrogen-recombination lasing could be achieved in a capillary discharge Z pinch, but a higher-power driver might be needed.

Hyperfine coherence in the presence of spontaneous photon scattering.

The coherence of a hyperfine-state superposition of a trapped 9Be+ ion in the presence of off-resonant light is studied experimentally. It is shown that Rayleigh elastic scattering of photons that does not change state populations also does not affect coherence. We observe coherence times that exceed the average scattering time of 19 photons which is determined from measured Stark shifts. This result implies that, with sufficient control over its parameters, laser light can be used to manipulate hyperfine-state superpositions with very little decoherence.

Long-lived qubit memory using atomic ions.

We demonstrate experimentally a robust quantum memory using a magnetic-field-independent hyperfine transition in 9Be+ atomic ion qubits at a magnetic field B approximately = 0.01194 T. We observe that the single physical qubit memory coherence time is greater than 10 s, an improvement of approximately 5 orders of magnitude from previous experiments with 9Be+. We also observe long coherence times of decoherence-free subspace logical qubits comprising two entangled physical qubits and discuss the merits of each type of qubit.

Experimental demonstration of a technique to generate arbitrary quantum superposition states of a harmonically bound spin-1/2 particle.

Using a single, harmonically trapped 9Be(+) ion, we experimentally demonstrate a technique for generation of arbitrary states of a two-level particle confined by a harmonic potential. Rather than engineering a single Hamiltonian that evolves the system to a desired final state, we implement a technique that applies a sequence of simple operations to synthesize the state.

Experimental demonstration of a controlled-NOT wave-packet gate.

We report the experimental demonstration of a controlled-NOT (CNOT) quantum logic gate between motional and internal-state qubits of a single ion where, as opposed to previously demonstrated gates, the conditional dynamics depends on the extent of the ion's wave packet. Advantages of this CNOT gate over one demonstrated previously are its immunity from Stark shifts due to off-resonant couplings and the fact that an auxiliary internal level is not required. We characterize the gate logic through measurements of the postgate ion state populations for both logic basis and superposition input states, and we demonstrate the gate coherence via an interferometric measurement.

Trapped-ion quantum simulator: experimental application to nonlinear interferometers.

We show how an experimentally realized set of operations on a single trapped ion is sufficient to simulate a wide class of Hamiltonians of a spin-1/2 particle in an external potential. This system is also able to simulate other physical dynamics. As a demonstration, we simulate the action of two nth order nonlinear optical beam splitters comprising an interferometer sensitive to phase shift in one of the interferometer beam paths. The sensitivity in determining these phase shifts increases linearly with n, and the simulation demonstrates that the use of nonlinear beam splitters (n=2,3) enhances this sensitivity compared to the standard quantum limit imposed by a linear beam splitter (n=1).

Plasma dynamics in capillary discharge soft x-ray lasers.

The dynamics and stability of collapsing gas columns, generated by a fast capillary discharge setup, are studied for obtaining soft x-ray amplification in highly ionized ions. Electron temperature and density measurements at the peak of the compression stage are used for tuning the discharge parameters. Once the needed conditions were achieved, strong amplification of the 3s-3p transition in Ne-like Ar ions at 469 A is observed. A gain coefficient of >0.75 cm(-1) and a beam divergence of <5 mrad are measured along plasma columns of <150 microm diameter and up to 165 mm length.

Geometrical separation between the birefringence components in Faraday-rotation fiber-optic current sensors.

A novel optical fiber current sensor for low-current measurements is proposed and tested. By winding a commonly used low-birefringence single-mode optical fiber in a special geometry, one can circumvent the bend-induced birefringence problem. Smaller sensors can now be built with a sensitivity that linearly increases with the number of fiber windings.