TY - JOUR A1 - Puhlmann, Dirk A1 - Henkel, Carsten A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Pieplow, Gregor A1 - Menzel, Ralf T1 - Characterization of a remote optical element with bi-photons JF - Physica scripta : an international journal for experimental and theoretical physics N2 - We present a simple setup that exploits the interference of entangled photon pairs. 'Signal' photons are sent through a Mach–Zehnder-like interferometer, while 'idlers' are detected in a variable polarization state. Two-photon interference (in coincidence detection) is observed with very high contrast and for significant time delays between signal and idler detection events. This is explained by quantum erasure of the polarization tag and a delayed choice protocol involving a non-local virtual polarizer. The phase of the two-photon fringes is scanned by varying the path length in the signal beam or by rotating a birefringent crystal in the idler beam. We exploit this to characterize one beam splitter of the signal photon interferometer (reflection and transmission amplitudes including losses), using only information about coincidences and control parameters in the idler path. This is possible because our bi-photon state saturates the Greenberger–Yelin–Englert inequality between contrast and predictability. KW - quantum optics KW - quantum eraser KW - entanglement KW - bi-photons Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/0031-8949/91/2/023006 SN - 0031-8949 SN - 1402-4896 VL - 91 SP - 113 EP - 114 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kumph, Muir A1 - Henkel, Carsten A1 - Rabl, Peter A1 - Brownnutt, Michael A1 - Blatt, Rainer T1 - Electric-field noise above a thin dielectric layer on metal electrodes JF - NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS N2 - The electric-field noise above a layered structure composed of a planar metal electrode covered by a thin dielectric is evaluated and it is found that the dielectric film considerably increases the noise level, in proportion to its thickness. Importantly, even a thin (mono) layer of a low-loss dielectric can enhance the noise level by several orders of magnitude compared to the noise above a bare metal. Close to this layered surface, the power spectral density of the electric field varies with the inverse fourth power of the distance to the surface, rather than with the inverse square, as it would above a bare metal surface. Furthermore, compared to a clean metal, where the noise spectrum does not vary with frequency (in the radio-wave and microwave bands), the dielectric layer can generate electricfield noise which scales in inverse proportion to the frequency. For various realistic scenarios, the noise levels predicted from this model are comparable to those observed in trapped-ion experiments. Thus, these findings are of particular importance for the understanding and mitigation of unwanted heating and decoherence in miniaturized ion traps. KW - ion trap KW - electric field noise KW - fluctuation dissipation Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/18/2/023020 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 18 SP - 1125 EP - 1136 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Intravaia, F. A1 - Behunin, R. O. A1 - Henkel, Carsten A1 - Busch, K. A1 - Dalvit, D. A. R. T1 - Failure of Local Thermal Equilibrium in Quantum Friction JF - Physical review letters N2 - Recent progress in manipulating atomic and condensed matter systems has instigated a surge of interest in nonequilibrium physics, including many-body dynamics of trapped ultracold atoms and ions, near-field radiative heat transfer, and quantum friction. Under most circumstances the complexity of such nonequilibrium systems requires a number of approximations to make theoretical descriptions tractable. In particular, it is often assumed that spatially separated components of a system thermalize with their immediate surroundings, although the global state of the system is out of equilibrium. This powerful assumption reduces the complexity of nonequilibrium systems to the local application of well-founded equilibrium concepts. While this technique appears to be consistent for the description of some phenomena, we show that it fails for quantum friction by underestimating by approximately 80% the magnitude of the drag force. Our results show that the correlations among the components of driven, but steady-state, quantum systems invalidate the assumption of local thermal equilibrium, calling for a critical reexamination of this approach for describing the physics of nonequilibrium systems. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.100402 SN - 0031-9007 SN - 1079-7114 VL - 117 SP - 989 EP - 1010 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Intravaia, F. A1 - Behunin, R. O. A1 - Henkel, Carsten A1 - Busch, K. A1 - Dalvit, D. A. R. T1 - Non-Markovianity in atom-surface dispersion forces JF - Physical review : A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics N2 - We discuss the failure of the Markov approximation in the description of atom-surface fluctuation-induced interactions, both in equilibrium (Casimir-Polder forces) and out of equilibrium (quantum friction). Using general theoretical arguments, we show that the Markov approximation can lead to erroneous predictions of such phenomena with regard to both strength and functional dependencies on system parameters. In particular, we show that the long-time power-law tails of two-time dipole correlations and their corresponding low-frequency behavior, neglected in the Markovian limit, affect the prediction of the force. Our findings highlight the importance of non-Markovian effects in dispersion interactions. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.042114 SN - 2469-9926 SN - 2469-9934 VL - 94 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Japha, Yonathan A1 - Zhou, Shuyu A1 - Keil, Mark A1 - Folman, Ron A1 - Henkel, Carsten A1 - Vardi, Amichay T1 - Suppression and enhancement of decoherence in an atomic Josephson junction JF - NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS N2 - We investigate the role of interatomic interactions when a Bose gas, in a double-well potential with a finite tunneling probability (a 'Bose–Josephson junction'), is exposed to external noise. We examine the rate of decoherence of a system initially in its ground state with equal probability amplitudes in both sites. The noise may induce two kinds of effects: firstly, random shifts in the relative phase or number difference between the two wells and secondly, loss of atoms from the trap. The effects of induced phase fluctuations are mitigated by atom–atom interactions and tunneling, such that the dephasing rate may be suppressed by half its single-atom value. Random fluctuations may also be induced in the population difference between the wells, in which case atom–atom interactions considerably enhance the decoherence rate. A similar scenario is predicted for the case of atom loss, even if the loss rates from the two sites are equal. We find that if the initial state is number-squeezed due to interactions, then the loss process induces population fluctuations that reduce the coherence across the junction. We examine the parameters relevant for these effects in a typical atom chip device, using a simple model of the trapping potential, experimental data, and the theory of magnetic field fluctuations near metallic conductors. These results provide a framework for mapping the dynamical range of barriers engineered for specific applications and set the stage for more complex atom circuits ('atomtronics'). KW - atomtronics KW - coherence KW - ultracold atoms KW - Bose-Einstein condensate KW - Bose-Hubbard model KW - tunneling KW - Josephson junction Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/18/5/055008 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 18 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER -