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arXiv:1112.1735 · Physical Review A

Retrieval of multiple spin waves from a weakly excited, metastable atomic ensemble

Francesco Bariani, T. A. B. Kennedy

Published Mar 14, 2012• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The emission of light from a multiply excited atomic ensemble is examined and it is shown how symmetric (spin-wave) and nonsymmetric states of excitation radiate into spatially separate field modes. This observation has potential application to single-photon generation and spin-wave entanglement, since in the presence of atomic interactions it can result in isolated single-photon emission into a phase-matched field mode.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.033811

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The emission of light from a multiply excited atomic ensemble is examined and it is shown how symmetric (spin-wave) and nonsymmetric states of excitation radiate into spatially separate field modes. This observation has potential application to single-photon generation and spin-wave entanglement, since in the presence of atomic interactions it can result in isolated single-photon emission into a phase-matched field mode.
Entanglement between a single photon and a quantum memory forms the building blocks for a quantum repeater and quantum network. Previous entanglement sources are typically with low retrieval efficiency, which limits future larger-scale applications. Here, we report a source of highly retrievable spin-wave-photon entanglement. Polarization entanglement is created through interaction of a single photon with an ensemble of atoms inside a low-finesse ring cavity. The cavity is engineered to be resonant for dual spin-wave modes, which thus enables efficient retrieval of the spin-wave qubit. An intrinsic retrieval efficiency up to 76(4)% has been observed. Such a highly retrievable atom-photon entanglement source will be very useful in future larger-scale quantum repeater and quantum network applications.
We propose an efficient free-space scheme to create single photons in a well-defined spatiotemporal mode. To that end, we first prepare a single source atom in an excited Rydberg state. The source atom interacts with a large ensemble of ground-state atoms via a laser-mediated dipole-dipole exchange interaction. Using an adiabatic passage with a chirped laser pulse, we produce a spatially extended spin wave of a single Rydberg excitation in the ensemble, accompanied by the transition of the source atom to another Rydberg state. The collective atomic excitation can then be converted to a propagating optical photon via a coherent coupling field. In contrast to previous approaches, our single-photon source does not rely on the strong coupling of a single emitter to a resonant cavity, nor does it require the heralding of collective excitation or complete Rydberg blockade of multiple excitations in the atomic ensemble.
In spontaneous Raman scattering in an atomic ensemble, a collective atomic spin wave is created in correlation with the Stokes field. When the Stokes photons from two or more such atomic ensembles are made indistinguishable, a 'which-way' collective atomic spin excitation is generated among the independent atomic ensembles. We demonstrate this phenomenon experimentally by reading out the atomic spin excitations and observing interference between the read-out beams. When a single-photon projective measurement is made on the indistinguishable Stokes photons, this simple scheme can be used to entangle independent atomic ensembles. Compared to other currently used methods, this scheme can be easily scaled up and has greater efficiency.
We consider the optical generation and characterization of entanglement in atomic ensembles under nonuniform interaction between the ensemble and an optical mode. We show that for a wide range of parameters a system of nonuniformly coupled atomic spins can be described as an ensemble of uniformly coupled spins with a reduced effective atom-light coupling and a reduced effective atom number, with a reduction factor of order unity given by the ensemble-mode geometry. This description is valid even for complex entangled states with arbitrary phase-space distribution functions as long as the average total spin remains large, and the detection does not resolve single spins. Furthermore, we derive an analytic formula for determining the observable entanglement in the case, of relevance in practice, where the ensemble-mode coupling differs between state generation and measurement.
Entanglement swapping (ES) between memory repeater links is critical for establishing quantum networks via quantum repeaters. So far, ES with atomic-ensemble-based memories has not been achieved. Here, we experimentally demonstrate ES between different spatial modes for a cold-atom-ensemble quantum memory via the Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller scheme. With a cloud of cold atoms inserted in a cavity, we produce non-classically correlated spin-wave-photon pairs in 12 spatial modes. We then prepare two entangled pairs of spin-wave modes through memory multiplexing. Via single-photon Bell-state measurement on retrieved fields from two spin-wave modes, we project the two remaining modes never entangled previously into an entangled state with a measured concurrence of C =0.0124±0.0030. The successful probability of ES in our scheme is increased by three times, compared with that in the scheme without memory multiplexing. Our presented work shows that the generation of entanglement ( C >0) between the remaining spin-wave modes requires the average cross-correlation function of the spin-wave-photon pairs to be ≥30. This presented work represents a significant step toward practical quantum repeaters.
We present a theoretical framework to describe the collective emission of light by entangled atomic states. Our theory applies to the low-excitation regime, where most of the atoms are initially in the ground state, and relies on a bosonic description of the atomic excitations. In this way, the problem of light emission by an ensemble of atoms can be solved exactly, including dipole-dipole interactions and multiple light scattering. Explicit expressions for the emitted photonic states are obtained in several situations, such as those of atoms in regular lattices and atomic vapors. We determine the directionality of the photonic beam, the purity of the photonic state, and the renormalization of the emission rates. We also show how to observe collective phenomena with ultracold atoms in optical lattices and how to use these ideas to generate photonic states that are useful in the context of quantum information.