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arXiv:0904.0504 · Physical Review Letters

Single-Photon Entanglement in the keV Regime via Coherent Control of Nuclear Forward Scattering

Adriana Pálffy, Christoph H. Keitel, Jörg Evers

Published Jul 1, 2009• 65 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Generation of single-photon entanglement is discussed in nuclear forward scattering. Using successive switchings of the direction of the nuclear hyperfine magnetic field, the coherent scattering of photons on nuclei is controlled such that two signal pulses are generated out of one initial pump pulse. The two time-resolved correlated signal pulses have different polarizations and energy in the keV regime. Spatial separation of the entangled field modes and extraction of the signal from the background can be achieved with the help of state-of-the-art x-ray polarizers and piezoelectric fast steering mirrors.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.103.017401

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Generation of single-photon entanglement is discussed in nuclear forward scattering. Using successive switchings of the direction of the nuclear hyperfine magnetic field, the coherent scattering of photons on nuclei is controlled such that two signal pulses are generated out of one initial pump pulse. The two time-resolved correlated signal pulses have different polarizations and energy in the keV regime. Spatial separation of the entangled field modes and extraction of the signal from the background can be achieved with the help of state-of-the-art x-ray polarizers and piezoelectric fast steering mirrors.
The possibility to control the coherent decay of resonant excitations in nuclear forward scattering is investigated. By changing abruptly the direction of the nuclear hyperfine magnetic field, the coherent scattering of photons can be manipulated and even completely suppressed via quantum interference effects between the nuclear transition currents. The efficiency of the coherent decay suppression and the dependence of the scattered light polarization on the specific switching parameters is analyzed in detail. Using a sophisticated magnetic switching sequence involving four rotations of the hyperfine magnetic field, two correlated coherent decay pulses with different polarizations can be generated out of one excitation, providing single-photon entanglement in the keV regime. The verification of the generated entanglement by testing a single-particle version of Bell's inequality in an X-ray optics experimental setup is put forward.
Means to coherently control single x-ray photons in resonant scattering of light off nuclei by electric or magnetic fields are investigated theoretically. In order to derive the time response in nuclear forward scattering, we adapt the Maxwell–Bloch equations known from quantum optics to describe the resonant light pulse propagation through a nuclear medium. Two types of time-dependent perturbations of nuclear forward scattering are considered for coherent control of the resonantly scattered x-ray quanta. Firstly, the simultaneous coherent propagation of two pulses through the nuclear sample is addressed. We find that the signal of a weak pulse can be enhanced or suppressed by a stronger pulse simultaneously propagating through the sample in counter-propagating geometry. Secondly, the effect of a time-dependent hyperfine splitting is investigated and we put forward a scheme that allows parts of the spectrum to be shifted forward in time. This is the inverse effect of coherent photon storage and may become a valuable technique if single x-ray photon wavepackets are to become the information carriers in future photonic circuits.
The coherent storage and phase modulation of x-ray single-photon wave packets in the resonant scattering of light off nuclei is theoretically investigated. We show that by switching off and on again the magnetic field in the nuclear sample, phase-sensitive storage of photons in the keV regime can be achieved. Corresponding π phase modulation of the stored photon can be accomplished if the retrieving magnetic field is rotated by 180°. The development of such x-ray single-photon control techniques is a first step towards forwarding quantum optics and quantum information to shorter wavelengths and more compact photonic devices.
We theoretically investigate a scheme for the generation of single hard-x-ray pulses of controllable duration in the range of 1–100 ns from a radioactive Mössbauer source. The scheme uses a magnetically perturbed 57FeBO3 crystal illuminated with recoilless 14.4-keV photons from a 57Co radioisotope nuclide. Such a compact x-ray source is useful for the extension of quantum optics to the 10-keV energy scale, which has been in the spotlight in recent years. So far, experimental achievements have mostly been attained in synchrotron radiation facilities. However, the use of tabletop and portable hard-x-ray sources for time-resolved measurements and for implementing coherent control over nuclear quantum-optics systems has still been limited. The availability of compact hard-x-ray sources may become the engine for the application of quantum-information schemes down to the subatomic scale. We demonstrate that the present method is versatile and provides an economic solution, utilizing a Mössbauer source, to perform time-resolved nuclear scattering, to produce suitable pulses for photon storage, and to flexibly generate x-ray single-photon entanglement.
A technique to transform the waveform of a 14.4 keV photon (time dependence of the photon detection probability or, equivalently, the intensity of the single-photon wave packet) into a regular sequence of short, nearly bandwidth-limited pulses with a controlled number of pulses is proposed. It is based on coherent forward scattering of single X-ray photons from a synchrotron Mössbauer source (SMS) in an optically thick, vibrating, recoilless 57Fe resonant absorber. The possibility of compressing the waveform of an SMS photon into a single short bell-shaped pulse is predicted. The experiment is proposed for compressing a 100 ns duration 14.4 keV single-photon wave packet produced by SMS at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) into a single bell-shaped pulse of less than 20 ns duration and more than twice the peak intensity. Such single-photon coherent pulses are promising for applications in the fast-developing field of X-ray quantum optics, including possible implementation of quantum memory.
We introduce a technique to store and manipulate single x-ray photons, which relies on dynamically controlled absorption via nuclear hyperfine magnetic splitting. This scheme is inherently suitable for storage, on-demand generation, and dynamical manipulation of single x-ray photons, for instance, the manipulation of the temporal shape, temporal splitting, the interference between x-ray photons, and the control of the polarization. Our approach provides more opportunities in x-ray quantum information.