Related papers: Quantum decoherence in the rotation of small molec…
Complex molecules are intriguing objects at the interface between quantum and classical phenomena. Compared to the electrons, neutrons, or atoms studied in earlier matter-wave experiments, they feature a much more complicated internal…
The equations of motion for the molecular rotation are derived for vibrationally cold dimers that are polarized by off-resonant laser light. It is shown that, by eliminating electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom, a quantum master…
The effect of decoherence, induced by spontaneous emission, on the dynamics of cold atoms periodically kicked by an optical lattice is experimentally and theoretically studied. Ideally, the mean energy growth is essentially unaffected by…
Quantum states are described by wave functions whose phases cannot be directly measured, but which play a vital role in quantum effects such as interference and entanglement. The loss of the relative phase information, termed decoherence,…
Energy transfer through quantum coherences plays an essential role in diverse natural phenomena and technological applications, such as human vision, light-harvesting complexes, quantum heat engines, and quantum information and computing.…
The recent progress towards production of near-ground state quantum-degenerate molecules raises the issue of how such "small" molecules behave in an optical lattice. In this Letter we show that the coupling of the molecular orientation to…
The quantum state of motion of a large and rotating polar molecule can lose coherence through the collisions with gas atoms. We show how the associated quantum master equation for the center of mass can be expressed in terms of the…
Emergent quantum technologies have led to increasing interest in decoherence - the processes that limit the appearance of quantum effects and turn them into classical phenomena. One important cause of decoherence is the interaction of a…
Quantum decoherence, which appears when a system interacts with its environment in an irreversible way, plays a fundamental role in the description of quantum-to-classical transitions and has been successfully applied in some important…
We show that quantum rotational wavepacket dynamics in molecules can be described by a new system-environment model, which consists of a rotational subsystem coupled to a magnetically tunable spin bath formed by the nuclear spins within the…
We present quantum mechanical explanations for unresolved phenomena observed in field-free molecular alignment by a femtosecond laser pulse. Quantum phase analysis of molecular rotational states reveals the physical origin of the following…
Using an optical centrifuge to control molecular rotation in an extremely broad range of angular momenta, we study coherent rotational dynamics of nitrogen molecules in the presence of collisions. We cover the range of rotational quantum…
The question of classicality is addressed in relation with the shape of the nuclear skeleton of molecular systems. As the most natural environment, the electrons of the molecule are considered as continuously monitoring agents for the…
The angular momentum of molecules, or, equivalently, their rotation in three-dimensional space, is ideally suited for quantum control. Molecular angular momentum is naturally quantized, time evolution is governed by a well-known Hamiltonian…
Collective states in cold nuclei are represented by a wave function that assigns coherent phases to the participating nucleons. The degree of coherence decreases with excitation energy above the yrast line because of coupling to the…
The reduced dynamics of an atomic qubit coupled both to its own quantized center of mass motion through the spatial mode functions of the electromagnetic field, as well as the vacuum modes, is calculated in the influence functional…
We derive the quantum master equation predicting how the translational and rotational dynamics of a nanoparticle is affected by the emission of surface adsorbates. This is motivated by recent experiments which prepared the motion of…
We provide a theory of the deflection of polar and non-polar rotating molecules by inhomogeneous static electric field. Rainbow-like features in the angular distribution of the scattered molecules are analyzed in detail. Furthermore, we…
The extraordinary success in laser cooling, trapping, and coherent manipulation of atoms has energized the efforts in extending this exquisite control to molecules. Not only are molecules ubiquitous in nature, but the control of their…
We describe a new mechanism of decoherence in excited atoms as a result of thermal particles scattering by the atomic nucleus. It is based on the idea that a single scattering will produce a sudden displacement of the nucleus, which will be…