DOE OSTI · 2876538
Quantum control of Hubbard excitons
Abstract
Quantum control of the many-body wavefunction is a central challenge in quantum materials research, as it could yield a precise control knob to manipulate emergent phenomena. Floquet engineering, the coherent dressing of quantum states with periodic non-resonant optical fields, has become an important strategy for quantum control. Most applications to solid-state systems have targeted weakly interacting or single-ion states, leaving the manipulation of many-body wavefunctions largely unexplored. Here, in this work, we use Floquet engineering to achieve quantum control of a strongly correlated Hubbard exciton in the one-dimensional Mott insulator Sr 2 CuO 3 . A nonresonant midinfrared optical field coherently dresses the exciton wavefunction, driving its rotation between bright and dark states. We use resonant third-harmonic generation to quantify ultrafast π/2 rotations on the Bloch sphere spanned by these exciton states. Our work advances the quest towards programmable control of correlated states and exciton-based quantum sensing.
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Baykusheva, Denitsa R. [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Institute of Science and Technology Austria (Austria)] (ORCID:0000000274381139), Carmichael, Deven [Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)], Weber, Clara S. [RWTH Aachen Univ. (Germany)], Lu, I-Te [Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany)], Glerean, Filippo [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000324996386), Meng, Tepie [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000832522328), De Oliveira, Pedro B. M. [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)], Homes, Christopher C. [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)] (ORCID:000000017087756X), Zaliznyak, Igor A. [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)] (ORCID:0000000285487924), Gu, G. D. [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)], Dean, Mark P. M. [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)] (ORCID:0000000151393543), Rubio, Angel [Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany); Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States)] (ORCID:0000000320603151), Kennes, Dante M. [RWTH Aachen Univ. (Germany); Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany)], Claassen, Martin [Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000175800588), Mitrano, Matteo [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000201020391). 2026-03-09. Quantum control of Hubbard excitons. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02517-6
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