In ion trapping and atomic physics experiments, the Lamb Dicke regime (or Lamb Dicke limit) is a quantum regime in which the coupling (induced by an external light field) between an ion or atom's internal qubit states and its motional states is sufficiently small so that transitions that change the motional quantum number by more than one are strongly suppressed.

This condition is quantitively expressed by the inequality

where is the Lamb–Dicke parameter and is the motional quantum number of the ion or atom's harmonic oscillator state.

Lamb Dicke parameter

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Considering the ion's motion along the direction of the static trapping potential of an ion trap (the axial motion in  -direction), the trap potential can be validly approximated as quadratic around the equilibrium position and the ion's motion locally be considered as that of[1] a quantum harmonic oscillator with quantum harmonic oscillator eigenstates  . In this case the position operator   is given by

 

where

 

is the spread of the zero-point wavefunction,   is the frequency of the static harmonic trapping potential in  -direction and   are the ladder operators of the harmonic oscillator. The Lamb Dicke regime corresponds to the condition

 

where   is the motional part of the ion's wavefunction and   (here:   unit vector in z-direction) is the projection of the wavevector of the light field acting on the ion on the  -direction.

The Lamb–Dicke parameter actually is defined as

 

Upon absorption or emission of a photon with momentum   the kinetic energy of the ion is changed by the amount of the recoil energy   where the definition of the recoil frequency is

 

The square of the Lamb Dicke parameter then is given by

 

Hence the Lamb Dicke parameter   quantifies the coupling strength between internal states and motional states of an ion. If the Lamb Dicke parameter is much smaller than one, the quantized energy spacing of the harmonic oscillator is larger than the recoil energy and transitions changing the motional state of the ion are negligible. The Lamb Dicke parameter being small is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for the Lamb Dicke regime.

Mathematical background

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In ion trapping experiments, laser fields are used to couple the internal state of an ion with its motional state. The mechanical recoil of the ion upon absorption or emission of a photon is described by the operators  .[2] These operators induce a displacement of the atomic momentum by the quantity   for the absorption (+) or emission (-) of a laser photon. In the basis of harmonic oscillator eigenstates  , the probability for the transition   is given by the Franck-Condon coefficients

 

If the condition for the Lamb-Dicke regime is met, a Taylor expansion is possible,

 

The ladder operators act on the state   according to the rules   and  . If   is small, the   terms can be neglected, and the term   can therefore be approximated as  . Since   unless  , this expression vanishes unless  , and it is readily seen that transitions between motional states which change the motional quantum number   by more than one are strongly suppressed.

Applicability

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In the Lamb Dicke regime spontaneous decay occurs predominantly at the frequency of the qubit's internal transition (carrier frequency) and therefore does not affect the ion's motional state most of the time. This is a necessary requirement for resolved sideband cooling to work efficiently.

Reaching the Lamb Dicke regime is a requirement for many of the schemes used to perform coherent operations on ions. It therefore establishes the upper limit on the temperature of ions in order for these methods to create entanglement. During manipulations on ions with laser pulses, the ions cannot be laser cooled. They must therefore be initially cooled down to a temperature such that they stay in the Lamb Dicke regime during the entire manipulation process that creates entanglement.

See also

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References and notes

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  1. ^ Wineland, D.J. (1998). "Experimental Issues in Coherent Quantum-State Manipulation of Trapped Ions". Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 103 (3): 259–328. doi:10.6028/jres.103.019. PMC 4898965. PMID 28009379.
  2. ^ Eschner, Jürgen (2003). "Laser cooling of trapped ions". J. Opt. Soc. Am. B. 20 (5): 1003–1015. Bibcode:2003JOSAB..20.1003E. doi:10.1364/JOSAB.20.001003.