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arXiv:1308.6174 · Physical Review A

Generating entangled spin states for quantum metrology by single-photon detection

Robert McConnell, Hao Zhang, Senka Ćuk, Jiazhong Hu, Monika Schleier-Smith, Vladan Vuletić

Published Dec 2, 2013• 32 citations
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Abstract

We propose and analyze a probabilistic but heralded scheme to generate pure, entangled, non-Gaussian states of collective spin in large atomic ensembles by means of single-photon detection. One photon announces the preparation of a Dicke state, while two or more photons announce Schr\"odinger cat states. The method produces pure states even for finite photon detection efficiency and weak atom-photon coupling. The entanglement generation can be made quasideterministic by means of repeated trial and feedback, enabling metrology beyond the standard quantum limit.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.88.063802

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We propose a method for generating collective spin cat states in a cavity-coupled atomic ensemble by exploiting strong light-matter entanglement and anti-squeezing associated with the superradiant phase transition. We numerically and analytically demonstrate that the cat states can be heralded by photon-number measurement on the ground state of the Dicke model. The near-critical regime enhances both the cat-state size and the probability of obtaining larger photon-number outcomes, and outcomes with larger photon numbers yield even larger cat states. We also show that a thermodynamic-limit analysis clarifies the generation mechanism and connects it to a natural light-matter analogue of generalized photon subtraction for optical cat-state generation. These results suggest that exploiting criticality in strongly coupled light-matter systems could open new directions for matter-based many-body quantum technologies.
We present a scheme, based only on linear optics and standard photon detection, that allows to generate heralded multiphoton entangled states of arbitrary photon number from spontaneous parametric downconversion (PDC) in the weak interaction regime. The scheme also works in the strong interaction regime, i.e., for the production of large photon numbers, when photon-number resolving detectors with nearly perfect quantum efficiency are used. In addition, the same setup can be used for quantum metrology as multiphoton interferometer with sensitivity at the Heisenberg limit.
Entanglement between a single photon and a matter qubit is an indispensable resource for quantum repeater and quantum networks. With atomic ensembles, the entanglement creation probability is typically very low to inhibit high-order events. In this paper, we propose and experimentally realize a scheme that creates atom-photon entanglement with an intrinsic efficiency of 50%. We make use of Rydberg blockade to generate two collective excitations, lying in separate internal states. By introducing the momentum degree of freedom for the excitations, and interfering them via Raman coupling, we entangle the two excitations. Via retrieving one excitation, we create the entanglement between the polarization of a single photon and the momentum of the remaining atomic excitation, with a measured fidelity of 0.901(8). The retrieved optical field is verified to be genuine single photons. The realized entanglement may be employed to create entanglement between two distant nodes in a fully heralded way and with a much higher efficiency.