Temperature Can Enhance Coherent Oscillations at a Landau-Zener Transition

Robert S. Whitney, Maxime Clusel, and Timothy Ziman
Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 210402 – Published 15 November 2011

Abstract

We consider sweeping a system through a Landau-Zener avoided crossing, when that system is also coupled to an environment or noise. Unsurprisingly, we find that decoherence suppresses the coherent oscillations of quantum superpositions of system states, as superpositions decohere into mixed states. However, we also find an effect we call “Lamb-assisted coherent oscillations,” in which a Lamb shift exponentially enhances the coherent-oscillation amplitude. This dominates for high-frequency environments such as super-Ohmic environments, where the coherent oscillations can grow exponentially as either the environment coupling or temperature are increased. The effect could be used as an experimental probe for high-frequency environments in such systems as molecular magnets, solid-state qubits, spin-polarized gases (neutrons or He3), or Bose condensates.

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  • Received 1 April 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.210402

© 2011 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Robert S. Whitney1,2, Maxime Clusel3,2, and Timothy Ziman1,2

  • 1Laboratoire de Physique et Modélisation des Milieux Condensés (UMR 5493), Université Joseph Fourier and CNRS, Maison des Magistères, BP 166, 38042 Grenoble, France
  • 2Institut Laue-Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP 156, 38042 Grenoble, France
  • 3Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, UMR 5221, CNRS and Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France

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Vol. 107, Iss. 21 — 18 November 2011

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