Regimes of Coherent Intermittency in the Next Quantum Jump of a Multilevel System

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phenomenon of intermittency in multilevel quantum systems under continuous measurement, especially focusing on the regime where Rabi oscillations are slower than the system's lifetime, revealing regimes of coherent intermittency.

Contribution

It extends previous work by analyzing intermittency in multilevel quantum systems within the slow oscillation regime, highlighting the coherence of the wave function during dark periods.

Findings

Identification of regimes of coherent intermittency in slow Rabi oscillation systems

Demonstration that dark periods involve coherent wave functions

Extension of intermittency analysis to solid-state qubits

Abstract

In an externally driven multilevel quantum system observation that the NEXT jump has not yet happened affects its future development. In previous work [Phys. Rev. A36, 929 (1987)] it was shown that this class of measurement makes it possible to observe remarkably long dark intervals -- or intermittency -- in the atomic fluorescence of an atom with 3 or more levels. Those calculations were carried out when the driven oscillations or Rabi flopping between the ground state and a strongly fluorescing state were fast compared to its lifetime. In systems with solid state Qubits the accessible parameter space is generally limited to the regime where oscillations are slower than the lifetime. In this paper we evaluate intermittency in atomic transitions, due to measurements with a null result, in this limit. During the dark periods the wave function of the continuously measured multilevel system is coherent.