Fedor Jelezko 2026-11-05
Fedor Jelezko works on solid-state quantum optics and spin control in diamond. His Ulm University CV identifies him in full and lists the exact 2004 nuclear-spin paper whose first-author byline is F. Jelezko, verifying the connection between the full name and the abbreviated record.[ref]
That experiment addressed an electron spin coupled to a single Carbon-13 nuclear spin at a nitrogen-vacancy center. A laser initialized and read out the electron-spin-dependent signal, while microwave and radio frequency pulses manipulated the coupled levels. Nuclear-state changes were detected through the electron spin. The team observed nuclear Rabi oscillations and demonstrated a conditional two-qubit gate, providing a physical test of coherent control of an individually addressed spin system.[ref]
For an original ideal pulse example, let a selected transition have resonant Rabi frequency and start entirely in one level. The two-level model gives transition probability
A pulse gives , while a pulse gives . Scanning the pulse duration reveals an oscillation rather than a single population change. These are chosen ideal values; detuning, relaxation and readout noise limit a real measurement.
Figure 1.
Fedor Jelezko, portrait linked and identified on the Ulm University quantum-optics group page
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Jaynes-Cummings collapse and revival Created 2026-10-25 Updated 2026-11-05
An initially excited atom interacting resonantly with a coherent state has inversion , where is its Poisson distribution of photon number. Different Rabi frequencies dephase on a time scale and approximately rephase near . The revival estimate follows from the adjacent-component frequency difference . Large mean photon number makes the early oscillations nearly classical without removing the discrete spectrum responsible for revivals.
Mollow triplet 2026-10-20
A central peak and two sidebands in the resonance fluorescence spectrum of a sufficiently strongly driven two-level system. The atom-field dressed state splitting produces sidebands near , where is the resonant Rabi frequency. On resonance, changing the drive intensity changes the sideband spacing. Damping and detection conditions determine the resolved line shapes; the elastic coherent contribution must be distinguished from inelastic fluorescence.[ref]
An experimental test drives an isolated transition with a narrow-band laser, collects fluorescence away from the intense drive beam, and scans a spectral analyzer while varying drive power. Resolving the sidebands requires spectral resolution and coupling frequency sufficient relative to the radiative linewidth. The predicted spectrum concerns transitions of the coupled system rather than simply the time dependence of its population.
Nitrogen-vacancy center 2026-11-05
A nitrogen-vacancy center is a point defect in diamond consisting of a nitrogen atom occupying a carbon lattice site next to a vacancy defect. The surrounding diamond remains the host crystal; the adjacent impurity and missing atom create a localized electronic system. Its electron spin and optical response make individual defects accessible to quantum control.[ref]
A2004 experiment coupled the defect's electron spin to one nearby carbon-13 nuclear spin. Laser pulses provided optical preparation/readout, while microwave and radio frequency pulses manipulated the spin system. The researchers observed coherent nuclear-spin oscillations and implemented a conditional two-qubit operation.[ref] Detecting fluorescence thus provided access to a spin experiment inside a solid, rather than requiring electrical contact to the individual defect.
For an ideal resonantly driven two-state model, a Rabi oscillation gives transition probability , where is the angular Rabi frequency. A pulse lasting ideally transfers the population, while returns it. This illustrates controlled coherent evolution; actual fluorescence counts and gate accuracy also depend on preparation, readout and loss of coherence.
Rabi oscillations require a coherent drive with a stable phase over several population cycles and an isolated, appreciably coupled pair of quantum states. For large-amplitude oscillations, the Rabi detuning must be comparable to or smaller than the Rabi angular frequency. The population lifetime, optical coherence time, transit time and drive coherence time should all exceed by enough to resolve the cycles. An ensemble also needs sufficiently uniform Rabi frequencies and Rabi detunings that phase averaging does not wash the oscillations out. The usual sinusoidal formula additionally assumes the rotating-wave approximation.
The Einstein coefficients describe incoherent transition rates, rather than the evolving optical probability amplitudes. Their simplest use is appropriate for broadband, randomly phased radiation, with field correlation time short relative to population evolution, or for rapidly dephased chemical atoms whose optical coherences can be eliminated. The radiation energy density per unit frequency must be smooth over the relevant spectral line. Stimulated upward and downward transitions and spontaneous emission then enter rate equations, without predicting coherent population return. A short observation time can give a small excitation probability even for a coherent field; that condition alone does not justify an Einstein coefficients rate description. Coherent laser irradiation can also admit steady rate equations after optical coherence has relaxed, with the appropriate saturation response.
Write , with Rabi frequency , for the internal coupling and use normalized oscillator states. The motional carrier transition matrix element is the Gaussian characteristic function,
In the Lamb-Dicke regime, . The diagonal internal-energy terms cannot connect to .
If the two unnormalized printed functions are used verbatim, the literal ground-state integral is instead . This is not a matrix element between normalized eigenstates of the stated trap; even its zero-recoil value is incorrectly .
Let the initial field be the normalized coherent state , where . The atom is again initially excited. Linearity of the Schrödinger equation gives
The different photon numbers have different Rabi frequencies, so the state generally becomes entangled between atom and field. It cannot in general be replaced by one Rabi-oscillating atomic state multiplied by an unchanged coherent state.
Let be the atomic levels, , and the annihilation operator of the single field mode. Choose the joint ground energy to be zero. The resonant Jaynes-Cummings model is
The first term counts field photons, the second the atomic excitation, and the interaction exchanges one photon for one atomic excitation. A phase redefinition makes real and positive. Resonance means ; the total excitation is conserved. Adding an overall constant gives the equivalent convention using and a zero-point field term.
The model follows from the electric-dipole interaction and the rotating-wave approximation, retaining the energy-conserving terms while dropping and . We assume a single quantized monochromatic mode and negligible cavity leakage and atomic relaxation over the time considered. With this convention, the resonant population Rabi angular frequency in the one-excitation subspace is .
An atom-field dressed state is an eigenstate of the coupled atom and drive, rather than an eigenstate of the isolated atom. A strong near-resonant field mixes the bare two-level states and changes the transition spectrum. In a frame rotating at the drive frequency, the rotating-wave approximation gives, for one convenient convention,
Here is the resonant Rabi frequency. The two eigenvalues are
At resonance, the dressed states are equal-weight symmetric and antisymmetric combinations of the bare atom–field configurations. For a quantized drive, the appropriate paired configurations are and ; their coupling scales as . A strong coherent drive gives the familiar approximately classical Rabi frequency over its occupied photon-number range.
Radiative transitions connect neighboring dressed manifolds. Same-branch transitions have frequency near , while opposite-branch transitions give sidebands near . Under sufficiently strong resonant driving this produces the Mollow triplet in resonance fluorescence, with sidebands separated from the center by . Radiation damping determines widths and weights; detuning changes the relative intensities. Sidebands must be sufficiently separated compared with the decay scale to be resolved.[ref]
A fluorescence experiment drives the transition with a narrow-band laser, collects scattered light away from the intense drive beam, and resolves its spectrum. Changing drive intensity changes and hence the splitting. This measures transitions of the interacting system, not merely a population oscillation in time. The emitted spectrum can include an elastic coherent contribution as well as the inelastic fluorescence peaks, so the observed line shape needs the specified drive, damping and detection model.
Saturation intensity Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
The saturation intensity sets the physical crossover from linear optical response to saturated excitation. For an ideal radiatively damped two-level system driven on resonance, define , where is the Rabi frequency and is the spontaneous emission rate. Its steady excited population and total photon scattering rate are
At , and : half the high-intensity scattering limit . This gives the scale an observable meaning beyond simply defining a ratio. [ref]
The value depends on the transition dipole moment, driving polarization and sublevel populations. Optical pumping or extra dephasing can alter the effective response. Therefore comparisons must state the transition and illumination convention; a tabulated value for one geometry cannot automatically be assigned to another. [ref]