Entanglement dynamics of a strongly driven trapped atom

TL;DR

This paper investigates how entanglement between electronic and vibrational states of a laser-driven trapped atom evolves, highlighting the role of spectral avoided crossings and providing an effective model under dissipation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis linking entanglement dynamics to Landau-Zener splittings and develops an effective Hamiltonian for dissipative conditions.

Findings

Entanglement dynamics are linked to avoided crossings in the spectrum.

An effective Hamiltonian models entanglement under spontaneous emission.

The approach applies broadly to controlling atom entanglement with lasers.

Abstract

We study the entanglement between the internal electronic and the external vibrational degrees of freedom of a trapped atom which is driven by two lasers into electromagnetically-induced transparency. It is shown that basic features of the intricate entanglement dynamics can be traced to Landau-Zener splittings (avoided crossings) in the spectrum of the atom-laser field Hamiltonian. We further construct an effective Hamiltonian that describes the behavior of entanglement under dissipation induced by spontaneous emission processes. The proposed approach is applicable to a broad range of scenarios for the control of entanglement between electronic and translational degrees of freedom of trapped atoms through suitable laser fields.