Spin-Conservation Propensity Rule for Three-Body Recombination of Ultracold Rb Atoms.

We explore the physical origin and the general validity of a propensity rule for the conservation of the hyperfine spin state in three-body recombination. This rule was recently discovered for the special case of ^{87}Rb with its nearly equal singlet and triplet scattering lengths. Here, we test the propensity rule for ^{85}Rb for which the scattering properties are very different from ^{87}Rb. The Rb_{2} molecular product distribution is mapped out in a state-to-state fashion using resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization detection schemes which fully cover all possible molecular spin states. Interestingly, for the experimentally investigated range of binding energies from zero to ∼13 GHz×h we observe that the spin-conservation propensity rule also holds for ^{85}Rb. From these observations and a theoretical analysis we derive an understanding for the conservation of the hyperfine spin state. We identify several criteria to judge whether the propensity rule will also hold for other elements and collision channels.

Cooling Dynamics of a Single Trapped Ion via Elastic Collisions with Small-Mass Atoms.

We demonstrated sympathetic cooling of a single ion in a buffer gas of ultracold atoms with small mass. Efficient collisional cooling was realized by suppressing collision-induced heating. We attempt to explain the experimental results with a simple rate equation model and provide a quantitative discussion of the cooling efficiency per collision. The knowledge we obtained in this work is an important ingredient for advancing the technique of sympathetic cooling of ions with neutral atoms.

Experimental realization of a quantum phase transition of polaritonic excitations.

We report an experimental realization of the Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model using the internal and radial phonon states of two trapped ions. An adiabatic transfer corresponding to a quantum phase transition from a localized insulator ground state to a delocalized superfluid (SF) ground state is demonstrated. The SF phase of polaritonic excitations characteristic of the interconnected Jaynes-Cummings (JC) system is experimentally explored, where a polaritonic excitation refers to a combination of an atomic excitation and a phonon interchanged via a JC coupling.

Note: auto-relock system for a bow-tie cavity for second harmonic generation.

This Note reports on the implementation of an automatic relocking system for a bow-tie cavity for second harmonic generation to produce an ultra-violet laser source. The system is based on a sample-and-hold technique for controlling the cavity length using simple servo electronics. Long-term stabilization of the cavity output power is successfully achieved, which makes this system suitable for designing stable atomic physics experiments.

Generation of a decoherence-free entangled state using a radio-frequency dressed state.

We propose the generation of entangled states with trapped calcium ions using a combination of an rf dressed state and a spin-dependent force. By using this method, a decoherence-free entangled state of rf qubits can be directly generated, and ideally its fidelity is close to unity. We demonstrate an rf entangled state with a fidelity of 0.68±0.08, which has a coherence time of more than 200 ms by virtue of the fact that it is an eigenstate with energy gaps between adjacent levels. Using the same technique, we also produce a qutrit-qutrit entangled state with a fidelity of 0.77±0.09, which exceeds the threshold value for separability of 2/3.