Observables¶
Rydiqule can be used to calculate physical outcomes of experiments.
These functions get placed into two categories, Experiments and Observables.
Observables are quantities that can be computed directly from a Solution object, with no additional information.
These functions can be found as methods of Solution.
Examples of Observables are the susceptibility, optical depth, transmission coefficient, and phase shift
of a probing field.
Experiments are quantities that require more information.
At the time of writing, the only example is the get_snr() function.
Observable Derivation¶
Most of the Observables are derived from the optical/electrical susceptibility. Susceptibility is given by the optical polarizability \(P^+\),
This equation may be found in Steck Eq. 6.69 [1]. \(\bra{g}\hat{d}\ket{e}\) is the dipole matrix element, \(\rho_{eg}\) is the density matrix element, \(n\) is the atomic density, \(\chi\) is susceptibility, and \(E_{tot}\) is to amplitude of the electric field. The factor of two arises from the rotating wave approximation, such that \(P^+\) represents the atomic polarizability in the rotating frame.
Observable Validation¶
Rydiqule calculates the susceptibility using equivalent equations, but written in terms of atomic constants \(\kappa\) and \(\eta\) (see [2] for definitions). We validate that rydiqule calculates these observable quantities in a manner consistent with a canonical reference, namely Steck’s Quantum and Atom Optics notes [1]. The unit tests in test_solution.py test that rydiqule and Steck align, but assume that the density matrix element \(\rho_{eg}\) is correct. Validity of density matrix elements is checked in numerous other tests.
Another more stringent test of Rydiqule is comparing the optical depth using two different methods that are both appropriate for a 2-level atom.
All losses from an ideal two-level atom arise from scattering from the excited state.
This allows one to write the scattering rate in terms of \(\rho_{ee}\),
as is done in Steck’s Quantum and Atom Optics notes, Eq. 5.273 [1].
Another way to calculate the scattering rate is using the imaginary term of the susceptibility
corresponding to the probing field coupling.
This is the method Rydiqule uses, and can be found in Eq 6.73 of [1].
This test is implemented in test_solution.py
as the test_OD_with_steck unit test.
Running just these observable and experiment unit tests can be done by installing the pytest dependencies (see Unit Tests),
and running the following command from the package parent directory.
pytest -m experiments
User-Defined Observables¶
With the release of version 2, rydiqule implements observable calculations in a more general way. This was done to properly support observable calculations for a coupling involving sublevels, where the calculated result relies on more than one matrix element.
Any observable quantity \(\mathcal{O}\) of a quantum state defined by a density matrix \(\rho\) can be calculated using
where \(A\) is the associated operator for the desired observable.
This operation can be performed on any solution using the Solution.get_observable() method,
where the user provides \(A\) as a (generally complex) matrix the same shape as the system Hamiltonian.
In rydiqule, we are typically concerned with the complex susceptibility of the medium \(chi\),
whose associated operator is the dipole operator \(\hat{d}\).
For a general system, this operator is broken into two parts:
a scalar quantity \(d\) (the dipole moment) that describes the overall strength of the coupling,
and relative coupling strengths \(\hat{C}\) that describe the relative strength of couplings between sublevels.
These relative strengths are things like Clebsh-Gordon coefficients and are represented as a matrix.
In rydiqule’s implementation, these coefficients are the coupling_coefficient parameters.
A more detailed description of how these are defined in Cell’s implementation is given in Fine and Hyperfine Structure with Sublevels.
This coefficient matrix can be obtained for any coupling using the Solution.coupling_coefficient_matrix() method.
Finally, the Solution object has a method coupling_coefficient_observable() which
automatically obtains the coupling matrix and calculates the associated observable using the above functions.
By default, it will use the probe coupling (i.e. first coupling added to a Sensor).
This functionality is used under the hood to implement rydiqule’s standard observable functions
get_susceptibility(), get_OD(),
get_transmission_coef(), get_phase_shift().
To obtain a different observable, a user can define their own operator and call Solution.get_observable().
An example of this is done in the Simple NMOR examples notebook.
In those calculations, changes in polarization of the probing field are generated by the
dipole operator orthogonal to the input probing field.
The notebook shows how to obtain the coefficient matrix for the probe,
calculates its orthogonal companion,
and uses that operator to calculate the observables for polarization and ellipticity rotations.
References
[1] D. A. Steck, Quantum and Atom Optics, 0.13.15 ed. (2022)
[2] D. H. Meyer et. al., Optimal atomic quantum sensing using electromagnetically-induced-transparency readout, Phys. Rev. A 104 043103 (2021)