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1. Hamiltonian engineering of spin-orbit coupled fermions in a Wannier-Stark optical lattice clock

   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2201.05909  

   Aeppli, A. ; Chu, A. ; Bothwell, T. ; Kennedy, C.J. ; Kedar, D. ; He, P. ; Rey, A.M. ; Ye, J. ( July 2022 , ArXivorg)

   Engineering a Hamiltonian system with tunable interactions provides opportunities to optimize performance for quantum sensing and explore emerging phenomena of many-body systems. An optical lattice clock based on partially delocalized Wannier-Stark states in a gravity-tilted shallow lattice supports superior quantum coherence and adjustable interactions via spin-orbit coupling, thus presenting a powerful spin model realization. The relative strength of the on-site and off-site interactions can be tuned to achieve a zero density shift at a `magic' lattice depth. This mechanism, together with a large number of atoms, enables the demonstration of the most stable atomic clock while minimizing a key systematic uncertainty related to atomic density. Interactions can also be maximized by driving off-site Wannier-Stark transitions, realizing a ferromagnetic to paramagnetic dynamical phase transition. 

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2. Long-lived Bell states in an array of optical clock qubits

   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2111.14653  

   Schine, N. ; Young, A.W. ; Eckner, W.J. ; Martin, M. J. ; Kaufman, A. M. ( July 2022 , ArXivorg)

   The generation of long-lived entanglement on an optical clock transition is a key requirement to unlocking the promise of quantum metrology. Arrays of neutral atoms constitute a capable quantum platform for accessing such physics, where Rydberg-based interactions may generate entanglement between individually controlled and resolved atoms. To this end, we leverage the programmable state preparation afforded by optical tweezers along with the efficient strong confinement of a 3d optical lattice to prepare an ensemble of strontium atom pairs in their motional ground state. We engineer global single-qubit gates on the optical clock transition and two-qubit entangling gates via adiabatic Rydberg dressing, enabling the generation of Bell states, |ψ⟩=12√(|gg⟩+i|ee⟩), with a fidelity of F=92.8(2.0)%. For use in quantum metrology, it is furthermore critical that the resulting entanglement be long lived; we find that the coherence of the Bell state has a lifetime of τbc=4.2(6) s via parity correlations and simultaneous comparisons between entangled and unentangled ensembles. Such Bell states can be useful for enhancing metrological stability and bandwidth. Further rearrangement of hundreds of atoms into arbitrary configurations using optical tweezers will enable implementation of many-qubit gates and cluster state generation, as well as explorations of the transverse field Ising model and Hubbard models with entangled or finite-range-interacting tunnellers. 

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3. Quantum Metrology with a Molecular Lattice Clock and State-Selected Photodissociation of Ultracold Molecules

   Lee, C.-H. ( January 2020 , Columbia University thesis)

   Over the past few decades, rapid development of laser cooling techniques and narrow-linewidth lasers have allowed atom-based quantum clocks to achieve unprecedented precision. Techniques originally developed for atomic clocks can be extended to ultracold molecules, with applications ranging from quantum-state-controlled ultracold chemistry to searches for new physics. Because of the richness of molecular structure, quantum metrology based on molecules provides possibilities for testing physics that is beyond the scope of traditional atomic clocks. This thesis presents the work performed to establish a state-of-the-art quantum clock based on ultracold molecules. The molecular clock is based on a frequency difference between two vibrational levels in the electronic ground state of 88Sr2 diatomic molecules. Such a clock allows us test molecular QED, improve constraints on nanometer-scale gravity, and potentially provide a model-independent test of temporal variations of the proton-electron mass ratio. Trap-insensitive spectroscopy is crucial for extending coherent molecule-light interactions and achieving a high quality factor Q. We have demonstrated a magic wavelength technique for molecules by manipulating the optical lattice frequency near narrow polarizability resonances. This general technique allows us to increase the coherence time to tens of ms, an improvement of a factor of several thousand, and to narrow the linewidth of a 25 THz vibrational transition initially to 30 Hz. This width corresponds to the quality factor Q = 8 × 10^11. Besides the molecular quantum metrology, investigations of novel phenomena in state-selected photodissociation are also described in this thesis, including magnetic-field control of photodissociation and observation of the crossover from ultracold to quasiclassical chemistry. 

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4. Optical coherence between atomic species at the second scale: improved clock comparisons via differential spectroscopy

   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2109.09540  

   Kim, M.E. ; McGrew, W.F. ; Nardelli, N.V. ; Clements, E.R. ; Hassan, Y.S. ; Zhang, X. ; Valencia, J.L. ; Leopardi, H. ; Hume, D.B. ; Fortier, T.M. ; et al ( April 2022 , ArXivorg)

   Comparisons of high-accuracy optical atomic clocks \cite{Ludlow2015} are essential for precision tests of fundamental physics \cite{Safronova2018}, relativistic geodesy \cite{McGrew2018, Grotti2018, Delva2019}, and the anticipated redefinition of the SI second \cite{Riehle2018}. The scientific reach of these applications is restricted by the statistical precision of interspecies comparison measurements. The instability of individual clocks is limited by the finite coherence time of the optical local oscillator (OLO), which bounds the maximum atomic interrogation time. In this letter, we experimentally demonstrate differential spectroscopy \cite{Hume2016}, a comparison protocol that enables interrogating beyond the OLO coherence time. By phase-coherently linking a zero-dead-time (ZDT) \cite{Schioppo2017} Yb optical lattice clock with an Al+ single-ion clock via an optical frequency comb and performing synchronised Ramsey spectroscopy, we show an improvement in comparison instability relative to our previous result \cite{network2020frequency} of nearly an order of magnitude. To our knowledge, this result represents the most stable interspecies clock comparison to date. 

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5. Mechanistic insights of enhanced spin polaron conduction in CuO through atomic doping

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-018-0118-3  

   Smart, Tyler J. ; Cardiel, Allison C. ; Wu, Feng ; Choi, Kyoung-Shin ; Ping, Yuan ( November 2018 , npj Computational Materials)

   The formation of a “spin polaron” stems from strong spin-charge-lattice interactions in magnetic oxides, which leads to a localization of carriers accompanied by local magnetic polarization and lattice distortion. For example, cupric oxide (CuO), which is a promising photocathode material and shares important similarities with highT_csuperconductors, conducts holes through spin polaron hopping with flipped spins at Cu atoms where a spin polaron has formed. The formation of these spin polarons results in an activated hopping conduction process where the carriers must not only overcome strong electron−phonon coupling but also strong magnetic coupling. Collectively, these effects cause low carrier conduction in CuO and hinder its applications. To overcome this fundamental limitation, we demonstrate from first-principles calculations how doping can improve hopping conduction through simultaneous improvement of hole concentration and hopping mobility in magnetic oxides such as CuO. Specifically, using Li doping as an example, we show that Li has a low ionization energy that improves hole concentration, and lowers the hopping barrier through both the electron−phonon and magnetic couplings' reduction that improves hopping mobility. Finally, this improved conduction predicted by theory is validated through the synthesis of Li-doped CuO electrodes which show enhanced photocurrent compared to pristine CuO electrodes. We conclude that doping with nonmagnetic shallow impurities is an effective strategy to improve hopping conductivities in magnetic oxides.

    

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