Submission Date

4-25-2016

Document Type

Paper

Department

Physics & Astronomy

Adviser

Thomas Carroll

Committee Member

Thomas Carroll

Committee Member

Doug Nagy

Committee Member

Akshaye Dhawan

Department Chair

Doug Nagy

Project Description

Experimentally, we would like to demonstrate the process of selective field ionization of electrons as evidence of quantum control in a system of ultracold rubidium-85 Rydberg atoms. In order to accomplish this, an electric field pulse which is optimized to take an initial Rydberg electron state and produce the desired ionization spectra is necessary. We utilize techniques from artificial intelligence to develop a genetic algorithm for the optimization process. Our algorithm is computationally tested on an artificially constructed quantum system consisting of four energy states. In evaluating the viability of any given field pulse, we calculate the probability of an electron being found in a given state at a certain maximum field value by numerically evolving the electron’s wave function over time.

Comments

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

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