From Handwiki - Reading time: 3 minThis article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. (October 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
The Bloch–Siegert shift is a phenomenon in quantum physics that becomes important for driven two-level systems when the driving gets strong (e.g. atoms driven by a strong laser drive or nuclear spins in NMR, driven by a strong oscillating magnetic field).
When the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) is invoked, the resonance between the driving field and a pseudospin occurs when the field frequency [math]\displaystyle{ \omega }[/math] is identical to the spin's transition frequency [math]\displaystyle{ \omega_0 }[/math]. The RWA is, however, an approximation. In 1940 Felix Bloch and Arnold Siegert showed that the dropped parts oscillating rapidly can give rise to a shift in the true resonance frequency of the dipoles.
In RWA, when the perturbation to the two level system is [math]\displaystyle{ H_{ab} = \frac{V_{ab}}{2} \cos{(\omega t)} }[/math], a linearly polarized field is considered as a superposition of two circularly polarized fields of the same amplitude rotating in opposite directions with frequencies [math]\displaystyle{ \omega, -\omega }[/math]. Then, in the rotating frame([math]\displaystyle{ \omega }[/math]), we can neglect the counter-rotating field and the Rabi frequency is
where [math]\displaystyle{ \Omega_0 = |V_{ab}/2\hbar | }[/math] is the on-resonance Rabi frequency.
Consider the effect due to the counter-rotating field. In the counter-rotating frame ([math]\displaystyle{ \omega_\mathrm{cr} = -\omega }[/math]), the effective detuning is [math]\displaystyle{ \Delta\omega_\mathrm{cr} = \omega + \omega_0 }[/math] and the counter-rotating field adds a driving component perpendicular to the detuning, with equal amplitude [math]\displaystyle{ \Omega_0 }[/math]. The counter-rotating field effectively dresses the system, where we can define a new quantization axis slightly tilted from the original one, with an effective detuning
Therefore, the resonance frequency ([math]\displaystyle{ \omega_\mathrm{res} }[/math]) of the system dressed by the counter-rotating field is [math]\displaystyle{ \Delta\omega_\mathrm{eff} }[/math] away from our frame of reference, which is rotating at [math]\displaystyle{ -\omega }[/math]
and there are two solutions for [math]\displaystyle{ \omega_{res} }[/math]
and
The shift from the RWA of the first solution is dominant, and the correction to [math]\displaystyle{ \omega_0 }[/math] is known as the Bloch–Siegert shift:
The counter-rotating frequency gives rise to a population oscillation at [math]\displaystyle{ 2\omega }[/math], with amplitude proportional to [math]\displaystyle{ (\Omega/\omega) }[/math], and phase that depends on the phase of the driving field.[1] Such Bloch–Siegert oscillation may become relevant in spin flipping operations at high rate. This effect can be suppressed by using an off-resonant Λ transition.[2]
The AC-Stark shift is a similar shift in the resonance frequency, caused by a non-resonant field of the form [math]\displaystyle{ H_\mathrm{or} = \frac{V_\mathrm{or}}{2} \cos{(\omega_\mathrm{or} t)} }[/math] perturbing the spin. It can be derived using a similar treatment as above, invoking the RWA on the off-resonant field. The resulting AC-Stark shift is: [math]\displaystyle{ \delta \omega_\mathrm{AC} =\frac{1}{2} \frac{\Omega_\mathrm{or}^2}{(\omega_0 - \omega_\mathrm{or})} }[/math], with [math]\displaystyle{ \Omega_{or} = |V_{or}/2\hbar | }[/math].