Robust Pulses Research Articles

Automated dual olfactory device for studying head/tail chemosensation in Caenorhabditis elegans.

The correct interpretation of threat and reward is important for animal survival. Often, the decisions underlying these behavioral programs are mediated by volatile compounds in the animal's environment, which they detect and discriminate with specialized olfactory neurons along their body. Caenorhabditis (C.) elegans senses chemical stimuli with neurons located in the head and the tail of the animal, which mediate either attractive or aversive behaviors. How conflicting stimuli are processed in animals navigating different chemical gradients is poorly understood. Here, we conceived, created, and capitalized on a novel microfluidic device to enable automated and precise stimulation of head and tail neurons, either simultaneously or sequentially, while reading out neuronal activity in sensory and interneurons using genetically encoded calcium indicators. We achieve robust and programmable chemical pulses through the modulation of inlet pressures. To evaluate the device performance, we synchronized the flow control with microscopy data acquisition and characterized the flow properties in the fabricated devices. Together, our design has the potential to provide insight into the neural circuits and behavior of C. elegans simulating the experience of natural environments.

Neural-network-designed three-qubit gates robust against charge noise and crosstalk in silicon

Spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots are a promising platform for quantum computing, however, scaling to large systems is hampered by crosstalk and charge noise. Crosstalk here refers to the unwanted off-resonant rotation of idle qubits during the resonant rotation of the target qubit. For a three-qubit system with crosstalk and charge noise, it is difficult to analytically create gate protocols that produce three-qubit gates, such as the Toffoli gate, directly in a single shot instead of through the composition of two-qubit gates. Therefore, we numerically optimize a physics-informed neural network to produce theoretically robust shaped pulses that generate a Toffoli-equivalent gate. Additionally, robust π2 X and Controlled-Z gates are also presented in this work to create a universal set of gates robust against charge noise. The robust pulses maintain an infidelity of 10−3 for average quasistatic fluctuations in the voltage of up to a few mV instead of tenths of mV for non-robust pulses.

Robust dual-angle measurement in magnetization transfer spectroscopy by time-optimal control.

Magnetization transfer spectroscopy relies heavily on the robust determination of relaxation times of nuclei participating in metabolic exchange. Challenges arise due to the use of surface RF coils for transmission (high variation) and the broad resonance band of most X nuclei. These challenges are particularly pronounced when fast mapping methods, such as the dual-angle method, are employed. Consequently, in this work, we develop resonance offset and robust excitation RF pulses for 31P magnetization transfer spectroscopy at 7T through ensemble-based time-optimal control. In our approach, we introduce a cost functional for designing robust pulses, incorporating the full Bloch equations as constraints, which are solved using symmetric operator splitting techniques. The optimal control design of the RF pulses developed demonstrates improved accuracy, desired phase properties, and reduced RF power when applied to dual-angle mapping, thereby improving the precision of exchange-rate measurements, as demonstrated in a preclinical in vivo study quantifying brain creatine kinase activity.

Enhancing the sensitivity of atom-interferometric inertial sensors using robust control

Atom-interferometric quantum sensors could revolutionize navigation, civil engineering, and Earth observation. However, operation in real-world environments is challenging due to external interference, platform noise, and constraints on size, weight, and power. Here we experimentally demonstrate that tailored light pulses designed using robust control techniques mitigate significant error sources in an atom-interferometric accelerometer. To mimic the effect of unpredictable lateral platform motion, we apply laser-intensity noise that varies up to 20% from pulse-to-pulse. Our robust control solution maintains performant sensing, while the utility of conventional pulses collapses. By measuring local gravity, we show that our robust pulses preserve interferometer scale factor and improve measurement precision by 10× in the presence of this noise. We further validate these enhancements by measuring applied accelerations over a 200 μg range up to 21× more precisely at the highest applied noise level. Our demonstration provides a pathway to improved atom-interferometric inertial sensing in real-world settings.

Robust atom optics for Bragg atom interferometry

Multi-photon Bragg diffraction is a powerful method for fast, coherent momentum transfer of atom waves. However, laser noise, Doppler detunings, and cloud expansion limit its efficiency in large momentum transfer (LMT) pulse sequences. We present simulation studies of robust Bragg pulses developed through numerical quantum optimal control. Optimized pulse performance under noise and cloud inhomogeneities is analyzed and compared to analogous Gaussian and adiabatic rapid passage pulses in simulated LMT Mach–Zehnder interferometry sequences. The optimized pulses maintain robust population transfer and phase response over a broader range of noise, resulting in superior contrast in LMT sequences with thermal atom clouds and intensity inhomogeneities. Large optimized LMT sequences use lower pulse area than Gaussian pulses, making them less susceptible to spontaneous emission loss. The optimized sequences maintain over five times better contrast with tens of momentum separation and offer more improvement with greater LMT. Such pulses could allow operation of Bragg atom interferometers with unprecedented sensitivity, improved contrast, and hotter atom sources.

Optimal Control of Distributed Ensembles With Application to Bloch Equations

Motivated by the problem of designing robust composite pulses for Bloch equations in the presence of natural perturbations, we study an abstract optimal ensemble control problem in a probabilistic setting with a general nonlinear performance criterion. The model under study addresses mean-field dynamics described by a linear continuity equation in the space of probability measures. For the resulting optimization problem, we derive an exact representation of the increment of the cost functional in terms of the flow of the driving vector field. Using this representation, a descent method is designed that is free of any internal line search. The method is applied to solve new optimal control problems for distributed ensembles of Bloch equations.

Advanced design of MRI inversion pulses for inhomogeneous field conditions by optimal control.

Non-selective inversion pulses find widespread use in MRI applications, where requirements on them are increasingly demanding. With the use of high and ultra-high field strength systems, robustness to and inhomogeneities, while tackling SAR and hardware limitations, has rapidly become important. In this work, we propose a time-optimal control framework for the optimization of - and -robust inversion pulses. Robustness is addressed by means of ensemble formulations, while allowing inclusion of hardware and energy limitations. The framework is flexible and performs excellently for various optimization goals. The optimization results are analyzed extensively in numerical experiments. Furthermore, they are validated, and compared with adiabatic RF pulses, in various phantom and in vivo measurements on a 3 T MRI system.

B1 field map synthesis with generative deep learning used in the design of parallel-transmit RF pulses for ultra-high field MRI

Spoke trajectory parallel transmit (pTX) excitation in ultra-high field MRI enables B1+ inhomogeneities arising from the shortened RF wavelength in biological tissue to be mitigated. To this end, current RF excitation pulse design algorithms either employ the acquisition of field maps with subsequent non-linear optimization or a universal approach applying robust pre-computed pulses. We suggest and evaluate an intermediate method that uses a subset of acquired field maps combined with generative machine learning models to reduce the pulse calibration time while offering more tailored excitation than robust pulses (RP).The possibility of employing image-to-image translation and semantic image synthesis machine learning models based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) to deduce the missing field maps is examined. Additionally, an RF pulse design that employs a predictive machine learning model to find solutions for the non-linear (two-spokes) pulse design problem is investigated.As a proof of concept, we present simulation results obtained with the suggested machine learning approaches that were trained on a limited data-set, acquired in vivo. The achieved excitation homogeneity based on a subset of half of the B1+ maps acquired in the calibration scans and half of the B1+ maps synthesized with GANs is comparable with state of the art pulse design methods when using the full set of calibration data while halving the total calibration time. By employing RP dictionaries or machine-learning RF pulse predictions, the total calibration time can be reduced significantly as these methods take only seconds or milliseconds per slice, respectively.

MOF‐Derived Porous Dodecahedron rGO‐Co3O4 for Robust Pulse Generation

AbstractAs a member of the porous crystalline material family, metal organic framework (MOF) materials have been widely used in the fields of photodetection, photovoltaic cells, nonlinear optical devices, supercapacitors, and biological imaging. However, few reports about robust pulsed laser based on MOF‐derived nanomaterials especially the one with unique structure have been reported till now. In this paper, porous dodecahedron rGO‐Co3O4 is synthesized by calcining the MOF template and systematically analyzed. Interestingly, the rGO‐Co3O4 is successfully prepared as a saturable absorber (SA) by using the optical deposition method and the modulation depth of the rGO‐Co3O4 SA is 8.38%. Through different dispersion management, robust pulses with 1.5 µm dissipative soliton (DS) in the frequency domain and square wave pulse (SWP) in the time domain can be obtained in the erbium‐doped fiber laser based on rGO‐Co3O4 SA. The 3‐dB bandwidth and pulse duration of the DS are 6.81 nm and 62.01 ps, respectively. The pulse tuning range of the SWP is 1.24 ns ≈ 19.14 ns. It is worth mentioning that the threshold of the SWP is 53.72 mW, and the mode‐locked laser can be self‐started at the pump power of 72.04 mW. The experimental results show that the porous dodecahedral rGO‐Co3O4 material derived from MOF can be used as an excellent nonlinear optical modulator, providing a new choice for material processing.

Application of the small-tip-angle approximation in the toggling frame for the design of analytic robust pulses in quantum control

We apply the Small Tip-Angle Approximation in the Toggling Frame in order to analytically design robust pulses against resonance offsets for state to state transfer in two-level quantum systems. We show that a broadband or a local robustness up to an arbitrary order can be achieved. We provide different control parameterizations to satisfy experimental constraints and limitations on the amplitude or energy of the pulse. A comparison with numerical optimal solutions is made.

Breaking adiabatic quantum control with deep learning

In the era of digital quantum computing, optimal digitized pulses are requisite for efficient quantum control. This goal is translated into dynamic programming, in which a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) agent is gifted. As a reference, shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) provide analytical approaches to adiabatic speed up by pulse control. Here, we select single-component control of qubits, resembling the ubiquitous two-level Landau-Zener problem for gate operation. We aim at obtaining fast and robust digital pulses by combining STA and DRL algorithm. In particular, we find that DRL leads to robust digital quantum control with operation time bounded by quantum speed limits dictated by STA. In addition, we demonstrate that robustness against systematic errors can be achieved by DRL without any input from STA. Our results introduce a general framework of digital quantum control, leading to a promising enhancement in quantum information processing.

Multiple mode-locked regimes of an Er/Yb double-clad fiber laser based on NPR

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate generation of diverse structures of robust optical pulses obtained with a ring cavity passively mode-locked fiber laser based on a double-clad erbium-ytterbium doped fiber, and operating at net-anomalous cavity dispersion. A half-wave and a quarter-wave retarder plates allow adjustable saturable absorbing action by the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. Pulsed laser operation in quasi- continuous wave, molecules of solitons, and single-wavelength noise-like pulses (NLPs) regimes is obtained by properly adjusting the wave retarders. In the soliton and NLPs operating regimes, the central laser wavelength lies in the 1540 nm region. The obtained NLPs exhibit narrow peak coherence of ∼231 fs.

Heralded atomic nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation with Rydberg blockade

We propose a protocol to realize atomic nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation (NHQC) with two computational atoms and an auxiliary atom. Dynamics of the system is analyzed in the regime of Rydberg blockade, and robust laser pulses are designed via reverse engineering, so that quantum gates can be easily realized with high fidelities. In addition, we also study the evolution suffering from dissipation with a master equation. The result indicates that decays of atoms can be heralded by measuring the state of the auxiliary atom, and nearly perfect unitary evolution can be obtained if the auxiliary atom remains in its Rydberg state. Therefore, the protocol may be helpful to realize NHQC in dissipative environment.

Hafnium sulfide nanosheets for large energy passively Q-switched fiber laser application

We report the generation of 240 nJ, robust pulses at 1.5 μm by inserting the hafnium sulfide (HfS2) into the compact Er-doped fiber (EDF) laser. The multilayer HfS2 nanosheets prepared by liquid exfoliation was experimentally studied as a good performance saturable absorber (SA) with the modulation depth (ΔT) of 11.32%. The slope efficiency of fiber laser is as high as 8.9%. Compared with recent reported works, our experimental results show better comprehensive performance. This work demonstrates that HfS2 with prominent nonlinear saturable absorption property could be used as a promising candidate to advance the development of nonlinear optics.

Analytically parametrized solutions for robust quantum control using smooth pulses

Achieving high-fidelity control of quantum systems is essential for realization of a practical quantum computer. Composite pulse sequences which suppress different types of errors can be nested to suppress a wide variety of errors but the result is often not optimal, especially in the presence of constraints such as bandwidth limitations. Robust smooth pulse shaping provides flexibility, but obtaining such analytical pulse shapes is a non-trivial problem, and choosing the appropriate parameters typically requires a numerical search in a high-dimensional space. In this work, we extend a previous analytical treatment of robust smooth pulses to allow the determination of pulse parameters without numerical search. We also show that the problem can be reduced to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations which allows for a more streamlined numerical treatment.

Robust pulses for high fidelity non-adiabatic geometric gate operations in an off-resonant three-level system

We propose a method to design pulses in a resonant three-level system to enhance the robustness of non-adiabatic geometric gate operations. By optimizing the shape of the pulse envelope, we show that the gate operations are more robust against frequency detuning than they are with Gaussian and square pulses. Our method provides a way to design pulses that can be employed in a system where robustness against frequency variations or inhomogeneous broadening is required, and may be extended to ensure robustness against other physical imperfections such as intensity fluctuations and random noises.

All-fiber 2 μm thulium-doped mode-locked fiber laser based on MoSe2-saturable absorber

Abstract We demonstrate an all-fiber passive mode-locking laser operating in the 2 μm region that is implemented using a MoSe2-based saturable absorber (SA). A MoSe2-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) SA is prepared with a modulation depth of 4.98%, a saturation intensity of 168.6 MW/cm2 and a nonsaturable loss of 29.6%. When the MoSe2-PVA SA was inserted into the fiber laser cavity, highly stable self-starting soliton pulse trains were generated with a center wavelength of 1943.35 nm and a 3 dB bandwidth of 4.38 nm. The pulse waveform has a sech2 profile with pulse duration of 980 fs. The fundamental repetition rate is 23.53 MHz and the signal-to-background ratio of the fundamental frequency ranges up to 65 dB. The production of stable and robust pulses using this laser indicates that the MoSe2-PVA SA is suitable for generation of 2 μm femtosecond ultrashort pulses.

Physics-of-Failure (PoF) methodology for qualification and lifetime assessment of supercapacitors for industrial applications

Supercapacitors are used nowadays in an extensive range of battery-powered devices such as GPS/GPRS transceivers, active RFID tags, industrial PDAs, electronic locks, micro medical pumps, digital cameras, mobile phones and others. They are also used in vehicle's and machine's sub-systems requiring short but robust powerful current pulses. This covers back-up, delivery and leveling of high peak power as well as storing harvested energy.They are designed to meet high power requirements that cannot be fulfilled by standard batteries. Furthermore, their size and cost are very attractive for industries.However, selecting the right supercapacitor for a specific application remains a real challenge to industry. The specifications of these components only provide limited information about their lifetime for specific stress values. This information is not enough for industries to design a robust product and avoid high field returns.In this paper, we apply the Physics-of-Failure (PoF) methodology for qualification and lifetime assessment of electronic systems, to derive PoF models for supercapacitors at different stresses relevant for some industrial applications. It is expected from these models to better understand the performance of supercapacitors at different stresses and to predict accurate lifetime of supercapacitors allowing industry to robustly design their products and avoid high field returns.

Frequent Tail-tip Blood Sampling in Mice for the Assessment of Pulsatile Luteinizing Hormone Secretion.

In many endocrine systems, circulating factors or hormones are not released continuously, but are secreted as a discrete pulse in response to a releasing factor. Single-point sampling measures are inadequate to fully understand the biological significance of the secretory pattern of pulsatile hormones either under normal physiologic conditions or during conditions of dysregulation. Luteinizing hormone (LH) is synthesized by the anterior pituitary gonadotropecells and secreted in a pulsatile pattern which requires frequent collection of blood samples for pulse assessment. This has not been possible in mice until recently, due to the development of a high-sensitivity LH assay and advancement in a technique for frequent low-volume sample collection, initially described by Steyn and colleagues.1 Here we describe a protocol for the frequent peripheral blood sample collection from mice with sufficient handling acclimatization to detect pulsatile secretion of LH. The current protocol details an expanded acclimatization period that allows assessment of robust and continuous pulses of LH over multiple hours. In this protocol, the tip of the tail is clippedand blood is collected from the tail using a hand-held pipette. For assessment of pulsatile LH in gonadectomized mice, serial samples are collected every 5-6 min for 90-180 min. Importantly, the collection of blood and measurement of robust pulses of LH can be accomplished in awake, freely behaving mice, given adequate handling acclimatization and effort to minimize environmental stressors. Sufficient acclimatization can be achieved within 4-5 weeks prior to blood collection. This protocol highlights advances in the methodology to ensure collection of whole blood samples for assessment of pulsatile LH secretion patterns over multiple hours in the mouse, a powerful animal model for neuroendocrine research.

Few-Layer Platinum Diselenide as a New Saturable Absorber for Ultrafast Fiber Lasers.

A multilayer platinum diselenide (PtSe2) film was experimentally demonstrated as a new type of saturable absorber with the capability to deliver robust dissipative solitons in a passively mode-locked fiber laser. The PtSe2 film synthesized by chemical vapor deposition was placed onto the ferule of a single mode optical fiber through a typical dry transfer process. The nonlinear optical measurements reveal efficient saturable absorption characteristics in terms of a large modulation depth (26%) and low saturable intensity (0.346 GW cm-2) at the wavelength of 1064 nm. An all-fiber ring cavity was built, in which the PtSe2 film was sandwiched between two ferules as the saturable absorber and Ytterbium-doped fiber was used as the optical gain medium. Robust dissipative soliton pulses with a 3 dB spectral bandwidth of 2.0 nm and a pulse duration of 470 ps centered at 1064.47 nm were successfully observed in the normal dispersion regime. Moreover, our mode-locked lasers also exhibit good long-term stability. Our finding suggests that multilayer PtSe2 may find potential applications in nonlinear optics and ultrafast photonics.