Quantum control of many body atomic spins is often pursued in the context of an atom-light quantum interface, where a quantized light field acts as a "quantum bus" that can be used to entangle distant atoms. One key challenge is to improve the coherence of the atom-light interface and the amount of atom-light entanglement it can generate, given the constraints of working with multilevel atoms and optical fields in a 3D geometry. We have explored new ways to achieve this, through rigorous optimization of the spatial geometry, and through control of the internal atomic state. Our basic setup consists of a quantized probe beam passing through an atom cloud held in a dipole trap, first generating spin-probe entanglement through the Faraday interaction, and then using backaction from a measurement of the probe polarization to squeeze the collective atomic spin. The relevant figure of merit is the metrologically useful spin squeezing determined by the enhancement in the resolution of rotations of the collective spin, relative to the commonly used spin coherent state. With an optimized free-space geometry, and by using a 2-color probe scheme to suppress tensor light shifts, we achieve 3(2) dB of metrologically useful spin squeezing. We can further increase atom-light coupling by implementing internal state control to prepare spin states with larger initial projection noise relative to the spin coherent state. Under the right conditions this increase in projection noise can lead to stronger measurement backaction and increased atom-atom entanglement. With further internal state control the increased atom-atom entanglement can then be mapped to a basis where it corresponds to improved squeezing of, e.g., the physical spin-angular momentum or the collective atomic clock pseudospin. In practice, controlling the collective spin of N ~ 10⁶ atoms in this fashion is an extraordinarily difficult challenge because errors in the control of individual atoms tend to be highly correlated. By employing precise internal state control, we have prepared and detected projection noise limited "cat" states (which have initial projection noise that is larger by a factor of 2f = 8 for Cs relative to the spin coherent state) and estimate that we can generate up to 6.0(5) dB of metrologically useful spin squeezing, demonstrating the advantage of using the internal atomic structure as a resource for ensemble control.

Cette thèse se concentre sur la dynamique d'un système atomique froid qui se composede deux états internes d'atomes piégés dans un potentiel magnétique . La motivation decette thèse est une série d'expériences sur ce système réalisées en 2010, où un grandtemps de cohérence surprenante entre les deux états internes ont été observés. Cephénomène a été expliqué par la théorie cinétique qui a utilisé une approche de champmoyen. Dans cette thèse, nous essayons d'utiliser une approche différente et étudier leseffets de corrélations quantiques dans la dynamique du système. De plus, nous sommeségalement intéressés au phénomène de compression de spin qui est la redistribution desfluctuations quantiques dans le système de spin. Afin d'étudier les effets des corrélationsquantiques, nous proposons un modèle simplifié qui divise les atomes froids en deuxgroupes en fonction de leurs énergies de mouvement orbital dans le potentiel de piégeageet traitons chaque groupe comme un macro-spin. Les principaux ingrédients de ce modèlesont l'inhomogénéité du champ externe qui déphase les deux macro-spins et l'interactiond'échange entre les deux macro-spins, qui imite l'effet de rotation des spins identiques(ISRE), avec la condition initiale que les deux spins sont parallèle dans le plan transversaldu champ externe. Ensuite, nous étudions la dynamique du système classique où ladynamique ne dépendent pas de la taille des spins et une transition de synchronisation esttrouvée lorsque l'interaction d'échange est plus grande que le seuil , la moitié de l'inhomogénéité du champ externe. Une analyse de l'espace de phase révèle que cettetransition de synchronisation est liée à une transition de bifurcation et de la conditioninitiale. Ensuite, la dynamique quantique est étudiée où la taille de spin joue un rôleimportant dans la dynamique. Il n'y a pas de transition de synchronisation dans lessystèmes quantiques et du comportement dynamique très riche est trouvée. Dans ladynamique quantique , plusieurs échelles de temps caractéristiques apparaissent commela taille de spin augmente, ce qui est d'origine quantique. Ces échelles de temps dépendde la taille de spin et tous deviennent infinies lorsque la taille de spin est infinie. De cettefaçon, la limite classique est récupéré. Basé sur l’intensité de l'interaction d'échange ,deux modèles effectifs sont proposés pour calculer les échelles du temps quantiques lesplus petites, ce qui coïncide bien avec les résultats numériques. La compression de spinest également étudié avec ces modèles effectifs. / This thesis focuses on the dynamics of a cold atomic system which consists of two internalstates of atoms trapped in a magnetic trapping potential. The motivation of this thesis is aseries of experiments on such system carried out in 2010, where a surprising longcoherence time between the two internal states were observed. This phenomenon wasexplained by the kinetic theory which has used a mean-field approach. In this thesis, wetry to use a different approach and study the effects of quantum correlations in thedynamics of the system. In addition to that, we are also interested in the phenomenon ofspin squeezing which is the redistribution of quantum fluctuations in the spin system. Inorder to study the effects of the quantum correlations, we propose a simplified which splitsthe cold atoms into two groups based on their orbital movement energies in the trappingpotential and treat each group as a macro-spin. The main ingredients in this model are theinhomogeneity of the external field which dephases the two macro-spins and theexchange interaction between the two macro-spins, which mimics the identical spinrotation effect (ISRE), with the initial condition that the two spins lie parallel in thetransverse plane of the external field. Then we study the classical dynamics of the systemwhere the dynamics do not depend on the size of the spins and a synchronizationtransition is found when the exchange interaction is larger than the threshold, the half ofthe inhomogeneity of the external field. A phase space analysis reveals that thissynchronization transition is related to a bifurcation transition and the initial condition. Thenthe quantum dynamics is studied where the spin size plays an important role in thedynamics. There is no synchronization transition in the quantum systems and very richdynamical behavior is found. In the quantum dynamics, many characteristic time scalesemerge as the size of spin is increased, which are of quantum origin. These time scales isdependent of the spin size and all become infinite when the size of spin is infinite. In theway, the classical limit is recovered. Based on the strength of the exchange interaction,two effective models are proposed to calculate the smallest quantum characteristic timescales, which give very good agreement with the numerical results. Spin squeezing is alsostudied with these effective models.

La détection de l’intrication est une étape indispensable dans le contexte de l’information et du calcul quantique. Cette tâche importante s’est avérée difficile pour les systèmes quantiques de grandes dimensions supérieures à 2 × 3, auquel cas il existe des conditions nécessaires et suffisantes bien établies.Notre approche consiste à réduire la dimensionalité du problème. Pour ce faire, on transforme, localement, chaque sous-système en un qubit sans créer de l’intrication. Le mapping est exprimé en fonction des valeurs moyennes de trois opérateurs arbitraires dans l’état original. Nous donnons des conditions nécessaires et suffisantes pour que cette transformation soit valide d'un point de vue physique. Nous exploitons ce formalisme pour dériver des critères d’intrication pour des systèmes bipartites ou multipartites sur la base des critères existants pour les qubits.En transformant localement chaque sous-système, l’application de critères d’intrication connus pour les qubits à l’état résultant induit automatiquement des critères d’intrication en fonction d’opérateurs utilisés pour réaliser le mapping.Pour le cas multipartite, on s’intéresse aux inégalités de compression de spin. Cependant, lorsqu’on applique notre formalisme à ce cas, il est possible d’obtenir une superposition cohérente d’états avec un nombre de particules différent. Par conséquent, pour obtenir de meilleurs critères, nous avons dû prendre en compte les fluctuations quantiques et/ou classiques que l’opérateur du nombre de particules peut présenter. Nous avons dérivé une forme généralisée des inégalités de spin squeezing pour un nombre de particules fluctuant et opérateurs collectifs arbitraires. Nous avons appliqué nos résultats à un système d’atomes de chrome ultrafroids piégés dans un réseau optique, en collaboration avec l’équipe Gazes Dipolaires Quantiques du Laboratoire LPL de l’Université Paris Nord 13. Nous avons montré, dans une simulation numérique, que nos inégalités généralisées sont capables de détecter l’intrication à l’aide d’opérateurs collectifs mesurables en utilisant des techniques accessibles dans dans ce type de dispositif. / Entanglement detection is crucial and a necessity in the context of quantum information and quantum computation. This important task has proved to be quite hard for quantum systems of dimensions higher than 2×3, in which case, there exists well established necessary and sufficient conditions like Peres-Horodecki criterion.To tackle this challenge for bipartite systems, we introduce a mathematical framework to reduce the problem to entanglement in a two qubit system. This is done by mapping each subsystem locally into a qubit without increasing entanglement. The mapping is expressed in terms of expectation values of three arbitrary operators in the original state. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for such mapping to be valid from physical point of view, providing thence a versatile tool for dimension reduction in various applications.Our main use of this formalism is as a gate way to derive entanglement criteria for bipartite or multi-partite systemas based on existing ones derived for qubit systems. By mapping each subsystem locally into a qubit, applying entanglement criteria known for qubits on the resulting state automatically gives us entanglement criteria in terms of the chosen operators used to implement the mapping.For the multi-partite case, we focus on spin squeezing inequalities for qubits to derive entanglement criteria for general systems. However, when applying our formalism to this case, an interesting situation arises where one is able to obtain coherent superposition of multi-partite qubit states with different particle number. Hence, to derive better entanglement criteria, we had to consider quantum and/or classical fluctuationsthat may be exhibited by the particle number operator. We derive generalized form of Sørensen-Mølmer’s criterion and of spin squeezing inequalities for fluctuating particle number in terms of arbitrary collective operators. We applied our results to study entanglement in a system of ultra-cold Chromium atoms with spin s = 3 trapped in a bi-dimensional optical lattice incollaboration with Quantum Dipolar Gazes team in Laboratoire de Physique de Laser at Paris Nord 13 university. We showed, in a numerical simulation, that our generalized inequalities are able to detect entanglement in their system using collective operators. Moreover, we show that such observables can be measured using available techniques.

Direct detection of dark matter remains an important outstanding problem since abundant astrophysical evidence points towards its existence, but no experiment has succeeded in detecting it. Axions and axion-like-particles are some of the most compelling candidates for dark matter given their appearance in many theories of physics beyond the Standard Model and their relatively unexplored parameter space compared to other candidates. Recently, the Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment-Electric (CASPEr-e) has used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to search for effective magnetic fields created by axionic dark matter. By decreasing technical noise sources, CASPEr-e is projected to reach the standard quantum limit where spin projection noise is the dominant noise source limiting sensitivity. However, some axion models predict axion couplings to normal matter that would be too small for even a quantum limited CASPEr-e experiment to detect. This creates a need for surpassing the spin projection noise limit in NMR dark matter searches. In this thesis, I explore the prospects for surpassing the quantum limit in NMR by using spin squeezed states, entangled states with variance in one projection reduced below the standard quantum limit. First, I propose an experimental scheme for generating squeezed states by coupling the spins to an off-resonant circuit to create a One-Axis-Twist Hamiltonian. Then, using exact results and numerical simulations, I determine the amount of squeezing that can be achieved given decoherence and noise. Next, I perform modeling to show that squeezing can accelerate dark matter searches despite earlier results that argued squeezing cannot improve experimental sensitivity when subject to decoherence. Finally, I apply these results to the CASPEr-e experiment and show that at axion frequencies near 100MHz, squeezing can speed up the experiment by a factor of up to 30, corresponding to a sensitivity improvement by a factor of over 5.

Submitted by Eunice Novais (enovais@uepg.br) on 2018-03-13T21:29:18Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) André Gustavo de Oliveira.pdf: 22922599 bytes, checksum: 2b3b9c7fe5748930111b8a3585d9a410 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-03-13T21:29:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) André Gustavo de Oliveira.pdf: 22922599 bytes, checksum: 2b3b9c7fe5748930111b8a3585d9a410 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-26 / Neste trabalho são analisados os efeitos da adição de um termo de acoplamento baseado na interação dipolar entre núcleos quadrupolares em RMN na produção de spin squeezing através de Hamiltonianos de One-Axis Twisting. Diversos regimes de acoplamento são abordados para o caso de subsistemas com momento angular I=7/2 e J=3/2. Verifica-se através das dinâmicas abordadas e pelos valores mínimos do parâmetro de spin squeezing _S^2 em função da intensidade do acoplamento D que, apesar de mudanças significativas nas dinâmicas, estados spin squeezed ainda são encontrados durante as evoluções / In this work, are analyzed the effects of the addition of a coupling term based on the dipole interaction between quadrupolar nuclei in NMR in the production of spin squeezing through One-Axis Twisting Hamiltonians. Several coupling regimes are addressed in the case of subsystems with angular momentum I = 7/2 and J = 3/2. It is verified through the dynamics addressed and by the minimum values of the spin squeezing parameter _S^2 as a function of the coupling intensity D that, despite significant changes in the dynamics, spin squeezed states are still encountered during the evolutions

Neste trabalho exploramos propriedades físicas dos cristais líquidos liotrópicos na sua fase lamelar e dentro desse utilizamos um sistema de spins quadrupolares para a criação e manipulação de estados coerentes de spin nuclear com técnicas de RMN. Os spins nucleares utilizados eram provenientes do núcleo de césio-133, com spin 7/2, presentes em uma molécula de pentadecafluoroctanoato de césio com estrutura líquido-cristalina. Sobre esse núcleo, aplicamos um novo conceito de pulsos fortemente modulados suaves para gerar os estados pseudo-puros correspondentes aos estados coerentes de spin nuclear. Com esses estados pudemos realizar experimentos de compressão de estado coerente, um conceito quântico muito importante quando vinculado ao conceito de emaranhamento. Outro estudo foi a observação de dinâmica clássica e efeitos de bifurcação nesse sistema quântico. Em ambas aplicações se destaca o controle dos spins nucleares no desenvolvimento dos protocolos tanto na implementação do conceito de estado coerente em sistemas de spin nuclear, quanto nas leituras dos estados quânticos via tomografia de estado quântico. / In this work we use a quadrupolar spin system inside a lyotropic liquid crystal in the lamellar phase and explore its physical properties to create and manipulate nuclear spin coherent states with NMR techniques. The nuclear spins come from the cesium-133 nucleus, spin 7/2, contained in the cesium-pentadecafluoroctanoate with liquid crystalline structure. On this nucleus, we apply a new concept of smooth strongly modulating pulses to create the pseudo-pure states corresponding to nuclear spin coherent states. With these coherent states we were able to perform coherent state squeezing, an important concept closely related to entanglement. In another study we observed the classical dynamics and bifurcation on this quantum system. Both applications highlight the quantum control of the nuclear spins in developing the protocols for the creation of nuclear spin coherent states as well as for performing the readout using the quantum state tomography procedure.

Neste trabalho exploramos propriedades físicas dos cristais líquidos liotrópicos na sua fase lamelar e dentro desse utilizamos um sistema de spins quadrupolares para a criação e manipulação de estados coerentes de spin nuclear com técnicas de RMN. Os spins nucleares utilizados eram provenientes do núcleo de césio-133, com spin 7/2, presentes em uma molécula de pentadecafluoroctanoato de césio com estrutura líquido-cristalina. Sobre esse núcleo, aplicamos um novo conceito de pulsos fortemente modulados suaves para gerar os estados pseudo-puros correspondentes aos estados coerentes de spin nuclear. Com esses estados pudemos realizar experimentos de compressão de estado coerente, um conceito quântico muito importante quando vinculado ao conceito de emaranhamento. Outro estudo foi a observação de dinâmica clássica e efeitos de bifurcação nesse sistema quântico. Em ambas aplicações se destaca o controle dos spins nucleares no desenvolvimento dos protocolos tanto na implementação do conceito de estado coerente em sistemas de spin nuclear, quanto nas leituras dos estados quânticos via tomografia de estado quântico. / In this work we use a quadrupolar spin system inside a lyotropic liquid crystal in the lamellar phase and explore its physical properties to create and manipulate nuclear spin coherent states with NMR techniques. The nuclear spins come from the cesium-133 nucleus, spin 7/2, contained in the cesium-pentadecafluoroctanoate with liquid crystalline structure. On this nucleus, we apply a new concept of smooth strongly modulating pulses to create the pseudo-pure states corresponding to nuclear spin coherent states. With these coherent states we were able to perform coherent state squeezing, an important concept closely related to entanglement. In another study we observed the classical dynamics and bifurcation on this quantum system. Both applications highlight the quantum control of the nuclear spins in developing the protocols for the creation of nuclear spin coherent states as well as for performing the readout using the quantum state tomography procedure.

Dans ce manuscrit, nous présentons une étude expérimentale du phénomène de compression de spin dans un condensat de Bose-Einstein de $^{87}Rb$, résultant d'une interaction non-linéaire provenant de collisions entre les deux états internes $|F=1, m_F=-1>$ et $|F=2, m_F=1>$ de l'état fondamental $5^2S_{1/2}$. Les atomes sont refroidis dans un piège magnéto-optique, puis piégés magnétiquement à l'aide de notre puce à atomes jouant le rôle de parois supérieure pour notre enceinte à vide. La puce est aussi utilisée pour émettre le champ radiofréquence permettant le refroidissement évaporatif conduisant à la condensation de Bose-Einstein, ainsi que le champ micro-onde qui réalise le transfert cohérent des atomes d'un état interne à un autre.L'ensemble atomique est décrit par le Hamiltonien "textit{one-axis-twisting}" qui contient un terme quadratique en la composante selon l'axe $z$ du vecteur de spin atomique $S_z$. L'amplitude de cette interaction non-linéaire, initialement très faible, dépend des longueurs de diffusion des états internes considérés, et peut être grandement augmentée en réduisant le recouvrement des fonctions d'onde. C'est pourquoi le système est placé dans une configuration particulière (grand nombre d'atomes et piège anisotrope de type "cigare") pour laquelle les deux états vont alterner des phases de séparation et recombinaison spatiale. L'impact de cette dynamique spatiale sur l'interaction de champ moyen et la cohérence du système est analysé expérimentalement à travers l'étude du contraste et de la fréquence centrale d'un interféromètre de Ramsey.Théoriquement, lorsque les deux états sont séparés, la distribution de spin se transforme d'une distribution circulaire régie par le bruit de projection quantique, en une ellipse dont le petit axe est inférieur à la limite quantique standard, sous l'effet de l'interaction en $S_z^2$. Ceci est vérifié expérimentalement en réalisant la tomographie de l'état atomique au moment où les deux modes internes se recombinent. Un paramètre de compression de spin $xi^2 = -1.3 pm 0.4$ dB est ainsi obtenu pour 5000 atomes et un contraste de 90%. L'étude des différentes sources d'instabilités a permis d'identifier les pertes atomiques comme limitation principale de la compression de spin et du contraste de l'interféromètre.Ce travail s'inscrit dans le contexte de la métrologie quantique et représente un pas vers la production d'états comprimés en spin permettant la réalisation d'interféromètres atomiques fonctionnant sous la limite quantique standard. La question de la cohérence d'un condensat bimodal soumis à de nombreuses collisions élastiques et inélastiques est aussi adressée. / In this manuscript, we present an experimental study of spin squeezing in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate of $^{87}Rb$, arising from a non-linear interaction originating from collisions between the two internal states $|F=1, m_F=-1>$ and $|F=2, m_F=1>$ of the $5^2S_{1/2}$ manifold. The atoms are cooled down in a magneto-optical trap and magnetically trapped thanks to our atom-chip which acts as a top wall for our vacuum cell. The chip is also used to emit the radio-frequency field that perform the evaporative cooling leading to Bose-Einstein condensation, and the microwave field used to coherently transfer the atoms from one internal state to another.The atomic ensemble in a coherent superposition is well described by the so-called textit{one-axis-twisting} Hamiltonian that contains a term quadratic in the $z$-component of the spin vector $S_z$. the strength of this non-linear interaction, initially very weak, depends on the intra- and inter-state s-wave scattering lengths, and can be greatly enhanced by reducing the wave-function spatial overlap between the two states. We therefore place the system in a configuration (high atom number and cigar-shaped trap) for which the two states experience spontaneous relative spatial separation and recombination phases. The impact of this spatial dynamics on the mean field interaction and coherence of the system is experimentally analyzed through the study of the contrast and central frequency of a Ramsey interferometer.Theoretically, when the two states are separated, the spin noise distribution evolves from a uniform circular distribution defined by the quantum projection noise, to an elliptic one whose small axis is smaller than the standard quantum limit, under the action of the $S_z^2$ interaction. This is verified experimentally by performing the tomography of the atomic state, when the two internal modes recombine. A squeezing parameter $xi^2=-1.3 pm 0.4$ dB is reached for 5000 atoms and a 90% contrast. The study of the different instability sources highlights the atomic-density-dependent losses as the main limitation for both the noise reduction and the contrast of the interferometer.This work has been initiated in the context of quantum metrology and represents a step towards the production of spin squeezed states enabling the realization of atom interferometers working below the standard quantum limit. It also addresses the fundamental question of coherence of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates undergoing many elastic and inelastic collisions.