[Media Release] Observation of femtosecond two photon Rabi oscillations in helium
December 15, 2015
Ultrafast and high efficiency manipulation of the quantum states of helium with high power lasers enables the realization of femtosecond two photon Rabi oscillations. The research was reported online in Nature Photonics on 30 November 2015 and has potential applications for room temperature quantum computing.
Toru Morishita at the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo (UEC, Tokyo) and colleagues at Nagoya University, Toyama University, RIKEN, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, and Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taiwan, report on the successful observation of ultrafast femtosecond two photon Rabi oscillations in helium.
Interaction of coherent light—as produced by lasers—with matter results in the generation of ‘superposition of quantum states’. This phenomenon can be used to manipulate matter to go between two quantum states at ultrahigh speed at almost 100% efficiency. This oscillation between two quantum states in different energy levels under the presence of an oscillatory driving field is referred to as ‘Rabi’ oscillations. Notably, this fundamental physical process can be exploited for applications including quantum information processing.
For more details, please see the file below,