Hao Wu

The fundamental concept underlying topological phenomena posits the geometric phase associated with eigenstates. In contrast to this prevailing notion, theoretical studies on time-varying Hamiltonians allow for a new type of topological phenomenon, known as topological dynamics, where the evolution process allows a hidden topological invariant associated with continuous flows. To validate this conjecture, we study topological chiral and nonreciprocal dynamics by encircling the exceptional points (EPs) of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in a trapped ion system. These dynamics are topologically robust against external perturbations even in the presence dissipation-induced nonadiabatic processes. Our findings indicate that they are protected by dynamical vorticity -- an emerging topological invariant associated with the energy dispersion of non-Hermitian band structures in a parallel transported eigenbasis. The symmetry breaking and other key features of topological dynamics are directly observed through quantum state tomography. Our results mark a significant step towards exploring topological properties of open quantum systems.

Ultrasensitive detection of the frequency, phase, and amplitude of radio frequency (RF) electric fields is central to a variety of important applications, including radio communication, cosmology, dark matter searches, and high-fidelity qubit control. Quantum harmonic oscillator (QHO) systems, especially trapped ions, have been used with several quantum sensing techniques to achieve electric field sensing with state-of-the-art sensitivity and nanometer spatial resolution. However, these systems are limited to a narrow frequency range centered around either the motional frequency of the trapped ion oscillator or the frequency of an optical transition in the ion; often these techniques are not sensitive to the RF phase. Here, we propose and demonstrate a procedure that unlocks the extreme sensitivity of a QHO to allow high precision wideband detection of the frequency, phase, and amplitude of an unknown electric field. Specifically, we use motional Raman transitions in a single trapped ion, cooled near its motional ground state to realize state of the art sensitivities to frequency, phase, and amplitude, and show the technique works over a frequency range that is >800x larger than previous techniques. Further, this technique is shown to be compatible with both quantum amplification via squeezing and measurement in the Fock basis, allowing performance 3.4(20) dB below the standard quantum limit and the potential for several orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity with moderate upgrades. In addition to providing an attractive platform for quantum sensing of small fields, this technique allows in situ calibration of qubit control lines in QHO systems, as well as transduction of external, non-resonant drives into oscillator excitation. Additionally, this approach can be extended to other QHO systems, such as a superconducting qubit-resonator system.

Evolution time of a qubit under a Hamiltonian operation is one of the key issues in quantum control, quantum information processing and quantum computing. It has a lower bound in Hermitian system, which is limited by the coupling between two states of the qubit, while it is proposed that in a non-Hermitian system it can be made much smaller without violating the time-energy uncertainty principle. Here we have experimentally confirmed the proposal in a single dissipative qubit system and demonstrate that the evolution time of a qubit from an initial state to an arbitrary state can be controlled by tuning the dissipation intensity in a non-Hermitian Parity-Time-Symmetric ($\mathcal{P T}$-symmetric) quantum system. It decreases with increasing dissipation intensity and also gives a tighter bound for quantum speed limit (QSL). We also find that the evolution time of its reversal operation increases with the increasing dissipation intensity. These findings give us a well-controlled knob for speeding up the qubit operation, and pave the way towards fast and practical quantum computation, opening the door for solving sophisticated problems with only a few qubits.

Non-Hermitian systems satisfying parity-time (PT) symmetry have aroused considerable interest owing to their exotic features. Anti-PT symmetry is an important counterpart of the PT symmetry, and has been studied in various classical systems. Although a Hamiltonian with anti-PT symmetry only differs from its PT-symmetric counterpart in a global $\pm$ i phase, the ways they change information and energy with the enivronment are completely different, suggesting an essential different dynamics in anti-PT-symmetric systems from their PT -symmetric variants. Moreover, theortical works have shown that qubits with anti-PT-symmetric Hamiltonians (anti-PT-symmetric qubits) have superior decoherence properties over Hermitian qubits, as well as PT-symmetric ones. So far, the observation of anti-PT symmetry in individual quantum systems remains elusive. Here, we implement an anti-PT -symmetric Hamiltonian of a single qubit in a single trapped ion by a designed microwave and optical control-pulse sequence. We characterize the anti-PT phase transition by mapping out the eigenvalues at different dissipation rates. The full inforamtion of the quantum state is also obtained by quantum state tomography. Our work allows quantum simulation of genuine open-system feature of an anti-PT-symmetric system, which paves the way for utilizing non-Hermitian properties for quantum information processing.

Using light as a probe to detect a mechanical motion is one of the most successful experimental approaches in physics. The history of mechanical sensing based on the reflection, refraction and scattering of light dates back to the 16th century, where in the Cavendish experiment, the angle of rotation induced by the gravitational force is measured by the deflection of a light beam reflected from a mirror attached to the suspension. In modern science, mechano-optical transducers are such devices that could detect, measure and convert a force or displacement signal to an optical one, and are widely used for force detection. Especially, ultraweak force sensor with ultrahigh spatial resolution is highly demanded for detecting force anomaly in surface science, biomolecule imaging, and atomtronics. Here we show a novel scheme using a single trapped ion as a mechano-optical transduction. This method utilizes the force-induced micromotion, converting the micromotion to a time-resolved fluorescence signal, in which the ion's excess micromotion coupled to the Doppler shift of the scattered photons. We demonstrate the measurement sensitivity about 600 $\textrm{zN}/\sqrt{\textrm{Hz}}$ (1 $\textrm{zN} =10^{-21}$N). By alternating the detection laser beam in all three dimensions, the amplitude and the direction of a vector force can be precisely determined, constituting a 3D force sensor. This mechano-optical transducer provides high sensitivity with spatial resolution in single-atom level, enabling the applications in material industry and the search for possible exotic spin-dependent interactions that beyond the standard model.

We report on the frequency stabilization of a 739 nm Ti:sapphire laser to a hyperfine component of the $^{127}I_{2}$ B(1)-X(11) P(70) transition using acousto-optic modulation transfer spectroscopy (MTS). A frequency stability of $3.83\times 10^{-11}$ around 13 s averaging time is achieved when the laser frequency is stabilized. The observed hyperfine transition of the molecular iodine is an ideal frequency reference for locking the lasers used in experiments with trapped ytterbium ions, since its second harmonic frequency is the $^{2}S_{\frac{1}{2}}-^{2}P_{\frac{1}{2}}$ transition of the ytterbium ion at 369.5 nm. By investigating the line broadening effects due to the iodine vapor pressure and laser power, the locking is optimized to the theoretical signal to noise ratio (TSNR) of this iodine transition.

The lifetime of Ba$^+$ ions confined in a Paul trap is found, under typical conditions, to be limited by chemical reactions with residual background gas. An integrated ion trap and time-of-flight mass spectrometer are used to analyze the reactions of the trapped Ba$^+$ ions with three common gases in an ultrahigh vacuum system (H$_2$, CO$_2$ and H$_2$O). It is found that the products of these reactions can all be photodissociated by a single ultraviolet laser at 225~nm, thereby allowing the recovery of the Ba$^+$ ions and leading to an increase of the effective trap lifetime. For a Coulomb crystal, the lifetime increased from roughly 6~hours to 2~days at room temperature. It is suggested that higher enhancement factors are possible in systems with stronger traps. In addition, photodissociation wavelengths for other common trapped ion systems are provided.

Minimizing the micromotion of the single trapped ion in a linear Paul trap is a tedious and time-consuming work,but is of great importance in cooling the ion into the motional ground state as well as maintaining long coherence time, which is crucial for quantum information processing and quantum computation. Here we demonstrate that systematic machine learning based on artificial neural networks can quickly and efficiently find optimal voltage settings for the electrodes using rf-photon correlation technique, consequently minimizing the micromotion to the minimum. Our approach achieves a very high level of control for the ion micromotion, and can be extended to other configurations of Paul trap.

Dipole-phonon quantum logic (DPQL) leverages the interaction between polar molecular ions and the motional modes of a trapped-ion Coulomb crystal to provide a potentially scalable route to quantum information science. Here, we study a class of candidate molecular ions for DPQL, the cationic alkaline-earth monoxides and monosulfides, which possess suitable structure for DPQL and can be produced in existing atomic ion experiments with little additional complexity. We present calculations of DPQL operations for one of these molecules, CaO$^+$, and discuss progress towards experimental realization. We also further develop the theory of DPQL to include state preparation and measurement and entanglement of multiple molecular ions.