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arXiv:0706.2327 · Physical Review Letters

Demonstration of a Stable Atom-Photon Entanglement Source for Quantum Repeaters

Shuai Chen, Yu-Ao Chen, Bo Zhao, Zhen-Sheng Yuan, Jörg Schmiedmayer, Jian-Wei Pan

Published Nov 2, 2007• 128 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate a novel way to efficiently create a robust entanglement between an atomic and a photonic qubit. A single laser beam is used to excite one atomic ensemble and two different modes of Raman fields are collected to generate the atom-photon entanglement. With the help of built-in quantum memory, the entanglement still exists after 20.5 micros storage time which is further proved by the violation of Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt type Bell's inequality. The entanglement procedure can serve as a building block for a novel robust quantum repeater architecture [Zhao, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 240502 (2007)10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.240502] and can be extended to generate high-dimensional atom-photon entanglements.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.99.180505

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We demonstrate a novel way to efficiently create a robust entanglement between an atomic and a photonic qubit. A single laser beam is used to excite one atomic ensemble and two different modes of Raman fields are collected to generate the atom-photon entanglement. With the help of built-in quantum memory, the entanglement still exists after 20.5 micros storage time which is further proved by the violation of Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt type Bell's inequality. The entanglement procedure can serve as a building block for a novel robust quantum repeater architecture [Zhao, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 240502 (2007)10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.240502] and can be extended to generate high-dimensional atom-photon entanglements.
Abstract Qubit memory that is entangled with photonic qubit is the building block for quantum repeaters. Realizing ensemble-based repeaters requires qubit simultaneously featuring high retrieval efficiencies and long lifetimes. So far, the longest memory time at 50% retrieval efficiency for entanglement storage reaches ~40 μs. Here, by coupling cold atoms to two spatially-distinctive modes of a polarization-interferometer-based cavity, we achieve cavity-perfectly-enhanced and long-lived atom-photon entanglement. A write-laser beam is applied onto cold atoms, we then create a magnetic-field-insensitive spin-wave qubit that is entangled with the photonic qubit encoded onto two arms of the interferometer. By applying a read beam, the spin-wave qubit is converted to a photonic qubit, whose two modes are resonant with the cavity. Our experimental data shows that zero-delay intrinsic retrieval efficiency is up to 77% and 1/e lifetime 1ms. At 50% efficiency, the storage time reaches 540μs , which is 13.5 times longer than the best reported result.
Qubit memory that is entangled with photonic qubit is the building block for long distance quantum repeaters. Cavity enhanced and long lived spin wave photon entanglement has been demonstrated by applying dual laser beams onto optical-lattice atoms. However, owing to cross readouts by two beams, retrieval efficiency of spin wave qubit is decreased by one quarter compared to that of single mode spin wave at all storage times. Here, by coupling cold atoms to two modes of a polarization interferometer based cavity, we achieve perfect qubit retrieval in cavity enhanced and long lived atom photon entanglement. A write laser beam is applied onto cold atoms, we then create a magnetic field insensitive spin wave qubit that is entangled with the photonic qubit encoded onto two arms of the interferometer. The spin wave qubit is retrieved by a read beam, which avoids the cross readouts. Our experiment demonstrates 540 μ s storage time at 50% intrinsic qubit retrieval efficiency, which is 13.5 times longer than the best reported result.
We create independent, synchronized single-photon sources with built-in quantum memory based on two remote cold atomic ensembles. The synchronized single photons are used to demonstrate efficient generation of entanglement. The resulting entangled photon pairs violate a Bell's inequality by 5 standard deviations. Our synchronized single photons with their long coherence time of 25 ns and the efficient creation of entanglement serve as an ideal building block for scalable linear optical quantum information processing.
A source that can generate atom-photon quantum correlations or entanglement based on a quantum memory is a basic building block of quantum repeaters (QRs). To achieve high entanglement generation rates in ensemble-based QRs, spatial-, temporal-, and spectral-multimode memories are needed. Previous temporal-multimode memories are based on rephasing mechanisms in inhomogeneously broadened media. Here, by applying a train of write pulses in time, with each pulse coming from a different direction, to a homogeneously broadened atomic ensemble to induce Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller-like Raman processes, we prepare up to 19 pairs of modes, namely, one spin-wave mode and one photonic time bin. Spin-wave-photon (i.e., atom-photon) entanglement is probabilistically produced in these mode pairs. Based on the stored spin-wave modes together with feedforward-controlled readout, we build a temporally multiplexed source and then demonstrate an 18.8-fold increase in the probability of the generation of spin-wave-photon entanglement compared to the sources that use individual modes. The measured Bell parameter for the multiplexed source is $2.30\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02$, and the memory lifetime is 30 \ensuremath{\mu}s.
Abstract High-rate generation of hybrid photon-matter entanglement remains a fundamental building block of quantum network architectures enabling protocols such as quantum secure communication or quantum distributed computing. While a tremendous effort has been made to overcome technological constraints limiting the efficiency and coherence times of current systems, an important complementary approach is to employ parallel and multiplexed architectures. Here we follow this approach experimentally demonstrating the generation of bipartite polarization-entangled photonic states across more than 500 modes, with a programmable delay for the second photon enabled by qubit storage in a wavevector-multiplexed cold-atomic quantum memory. We demonstrate Clauser, Horne, Shimony, Holt inequality violation by over 3 standard deviations, lasting for at least 45 μs storage time for half of the modes. The ability to shape hybrid entanglement between the polarization and wavevector degrees of freedom provides not only multiplexing capabilities but also brings prospects for novel protocols.
A cold atomic ensemble suits well for optical quantum memories, and its entanglement with a single photon forms the building block for quantum networks that give promise for many revolutionary applications. Efficiency and lifetime are among the most important figures of merit for a memory. In this Letter, we report the realization of entanglement between an atomic ensemble and a single photon with subsecond lifetime and high efficiency. We engineer dual control modes in a ring cavity to create entanglement and make use of three-dimensional optical lattice to prolong memory lifetime. The memory efficiency is 38% for 0.1 s storage. We verify the atom-photon entanglement after 1 s storage by testing the Bell inequality with a result of S=2.36±0.14.