Quantum Transport of Energy in Controlled Synthetic Quantum Magnets

TL;DR

This paper presents a method using laser cooling and phonon interactions in trapped ion crystals to control and study quantum energy transport, including effects analogous to Coulomb blockade.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme to manipulate energy flow in quantum magnets via engineered thermal reservoirs and transport windows in trapped ion systems.

Findings

Controlled energy transport demonstrated in quantum magnet model.

Implementation of an energy blockade effect similar to Coulomb blockade.

Tunable reservoirs enable exploration of quantum energy transport phenomena.

Abstract

We introduce a scheme that exploits laser cooling and phonon-mediated spin-spin interactions in crystals of trapped atomic ions to explore the transport of energy through a quantum magnet. We show how to implement an effective transport window to control the flow of energy through the magnet even in the absence of fermionic statistics for the carriers. This is achieved by shaping the density of states of the effective thermal reservoirs that arise from the interaction with the external bath of the modes of the electromagnetic field, and can be experimentally controlled by tuning the laser frequencies and intensities appropriately. The interplay of this transport window with the spin-spin interactions is exploited to build an analogue of the Coulomb-blockade effect in nano-scale electronic devices, and opens new possibilities to study quantum effects in energy transport.