Fast shuttling of a particle under weak spring-constant noise of the moving trap

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how weak spring-constant noise affects the excitation energy of a quantum particle in a moving harmonic trap, providing formulas to optimize shuttling protocols and minimize excitations.

Contribution

It introduces a model for particle shuttling under colored noise and derives expressions to reduce excitation energy through optimized timing and trap trajectory design.

Findings

Excitation energy depends on static and dynamical sensitivities with opposite time behaviors.

Proper timing and trajectory design can significantly reduce excitation.

The model encompasses white noise and 1/f flicker noise as special cases.

Abstract

We investigate the excitation of a quantum particle shuttled in a harmonic trap with weak springconstant colored noise. The Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model for the noise correlation function describes a wide range of possible noises, in particular for short correlation times the white-noise limit examined in Lu et al, Phys. Rev. A 89, 063414 (2014) and, by averaging over correlation times, "1/f ficker noise". We find expressions for the excitation energy in terms of static (independent of trap motion) and dynamical sensitivities, with opposite behavior with respect to shuttling time, and demonstrate that the excitation can be reduced by proper process timing and design of the trap trajectory.