Spontaneous emission of matter waves from a tunable open quantum system
Spontaneous emission of matter waves from a tunable open quantum system
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/s41586-018-0348-z
复制
发表时间：
2017-12
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
L. Krinner;M. Stewart;Arturo Pazmino;Joonhyuk Kwon;D. Schneble
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
L. Krinner;M. Stewart;Arturo Pazmino;Joonhyuk Kwon;D. Schneble
受激原子的衰变经历自发光子发射进入波动的量子电动力学真空是开放量子系统动力学的一个象征性例子。最近的实验表明，周期性结构中的带隙光子色散，阻止了某些频率范围内的光子传播，可以引起不寻常的自发衰变行为，包括形成耗散束缚态。到目前为止，这些效应仅限于光学领域。在这里，我们展示了类似的行为，在一个系统的人工发射器，实现了使用超冷原子在一个光学晶格，其衰变发射物质波，而不是光学，辐射到自由空间。通过控制真空耦合和激发能量，我们直接观察到指数和部分可逆的非马尔可夫动力学，并检测到一个可调的束缚态，包含倏逝物质波。我们的系统提供了一个灵活的平台，用于模拟开放系统量子电动力学和研究耗散多体物理与超冷原子，-。
The decay of an excited atom undergoing spontaneous photon emission into the fluctuating quantum-electrodynamic vacuum is an emblematic example of the dynamics of an open quantum system. Recent experiments have demonstrated that the gapped photon dispersion in periodic structures, which prevents photons in certain frequency ranges from propagating, can give rise to unusual spontaneous-decay behaviour, including the formation of dissipative bound states, –. So far, these effects have been restricted to the optical domain. Here we demonstrate similar behaviour in a system of artificial emitters, realized using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice, which decay by emitting matter-wave, rather than optical, radiation into free space. By controlling vacuum coupling and the excitation energy, we directly observe exponential and partly reversible non-Markovian dynamics and detect a tunable bound state that contains evanescent matter waves. Our system provides a flexible platform for simulating open-system quantum electrodynamics and for studying dissipative many-body physics with ultracold atoms, –.