Modelling assisted tunneling on the Bloch sphere using the Quantum Composer

TL;DR

This paper uses the Bloch sphere and Quantum Composer to model quantum tunneling, demonstrating how oscillating potential heights can significantly enhance tunneling probability, with applications in education and quantum control.

Contribution

It introduces an educational approach combining the Bloch sphere with Quantum Composer to visualize and analyze tunneling dynamics with potential for quantum control.

Findings

Oscillating potential heights enhance tunneling probability

Bloch sphere mapping provides intuitive visualization of tunneling

Quantum Composer facilitates interactive quantum state modeling

Abstract

The Bloch sphere representation is a geometric model for all possible quantum states of a two-level system that can be used to describe the time dynamics of a qubit. As explicit application, we consider the time dynamics of a particle in a double-well potential. In particular, we adopt a recent method for off-resonant excitations, the so-called SUPER principle (Swing-UP of the quantum emitter population) driven by periodic electromagnetic fields, to the context of quantum tunnelling. We show that the tunnelling probability can be enhanced significantly when an appropriate oscillation of the potential height is introduced. Driven by a collaborative approach we call educator-developer dialogue, an updated version of the software Quantum Composer is presented. For educational purposes, we map the two lowest energy states of the 1D-Schr\"odinger equation to the Bloch sphere representation, leading to a rather clear and intuitive physical picture for the pertinent time dynamics.