Towards the Realization of Tunable Open Quantum System using the Clock Transition

Spin-orbit-coupled (SOC) atoms with tunable dissipation offer a great opportunity to study the non-Hermitian quantum system. In such a system, controlled dissipation is realized by state-selective atom loss which enables the closing of energy gap opened by SOC and allows us to explore chiral behavior of quantum state evolution near the exceptional point (EP). In ¹⁷³Yb ultracold fermions, for example, a 556 nm transition (¹S₀ → ³P₁) has been used to control the dissipation [1], but there remains a challenge of the study of many-body non-Hermitian physics due to the rapid relaxation of the system. To overcome this, we plan to implement the atom loss using the clock transition ¹S₀ → ³P₀ [2]. We expect the clock transition will prevent atoms from jumping back from excited state to ground state within the experimental time scale, which reduces the undesirable heating and therefore relaxation.