Probing a dissipative phase transition with a trapped ion through reservoir engineering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a dissipative phase transition in a single trapped ion system by engineering a reservoir, showing how dissipation can be harnessed to study complex quantum phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces an experimental simulation of a dissipative phase transition using reservoir engineering in a trapped ion, highlighting a new approach to studying open quantum systems.

Findings

Steady state achieved after alternating unitary evolution and cooling

Average phonon number used as an order parameter for DPT

Trapped ions are effective for simulating open quantum systems

Abstract

Dissipation is often considered as a detrimental effect in quantum systems for unitary quantum operations. However, it has been shown that suitable dissipation can be useful resources both in quantum information and quantum simulation. Here, we propose and experimentally simulate a dissipative phase transition (DPT) model using a single trapped ion with an engineered reservoir. We show that the ion's spatial oscillation mode reaches a steady state after the alternating application of unitary evolution under a quantum Rabi model Hamiltonian and sideband cooling of the oscillator. The average phonon number of the oscillation mode is used as the order parameter to provide evidence for the DPT. Our work highlights the suitability of trapped ions for simulating open quantum systems and shall facilitate further investigations of DPT with various dissipation terms.