We present a convenient and efficient way to exchange and distribute multipartite entangled state via atomic coherence induced by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in an atomic ensemble. By using the EIT-based nondegenerate four-wave mixing processes, the generation, exchange, and distribution of light-light, atom-light, and atom-atom multipartite entanglement can be achieved in a deterministic way with only coherent light fields. This EIT-induced atomic coherence acts as a quantum information processor and has the function of quantum beam splitter, quantum frequency converter, quantum entangler, and quantum repeater, which greatly facilitates the operations in quantum information processing, and holds promising applications in realistic scalable quantum communication and quantum networks
We present a convenient and efficient way to exchange and distribute multipartite entangled state via atomic coherence induced by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in an atomic ensemble. By using the EIT-based nondegenerate four-wave mixing processes, the generation, exchange, and distribution of light-light, atom-light, and atom-atom multipartite entanglement can be achieved in a deterministic way with only coherent light fields. This EIT-induced atomic coherence acts as a quantum information processor and has the function of quantum beam splitter, quantum frequency converter, quantum entangler, and quantum repeater, which greatly facilitates the operations in quantum information processing, and holds promising applications in realistic scalable quantum communication and quantum networks
Entanglement provides an essential resource for quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum networks. How to conveniently and efficiently realize the generation, distribution, storage, retrieval, and control of multipartite entanglement is the basic requirement for realistic quantum information processing. Here, we present a theoretical proposal to efficiently and conveniently achieve a universal quantum information processor (QIP) via atomic coherence in an atomic ensemble. The atomic coherence, produced through electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in the Λ-type configuration, acts as the QIP and has full functions of quantum beam splitter, quantum frequency converter, quantum entangler, and quantum repeater. By employing EIT-based nondegenerate four-wave mixing processes, the generation, exchange, distribution, and manipulation of light-light, atom-light, and atom-atom multipartite entanglement can be efficiently and flexibly achieved in a deterministic way with only coherent light fields. This method greatly facilitates the operations in quantum information processing, and holds promising applications in realistic scalable quantum communication and quantum networks.
Quantum entanglement plays an essential role in quantum information processing and quantum networks. One of the commonly-used methods to generate multiple entangled fields is to employ polarizing beam splitters. However, nonclassical input light fields are required and the generated entangled fields are always degenerate in such case. Here, we present a proof-of-principle demonstration of an efficient and convenient way to entangle multiple light fields via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in an atomic ensemble. The atomic spin wave, produced through EIT in the Λ-type atomic system, can be described by a Bose operator and can act as an entangler. With such an entangler, any desired number of nondegenerate narrow-band continuous-variable entangled fields, in principle, can be generated through stimulated Raman scattering processes. This scheme holds great promise for applications in scalable quantum communication and quantum networks. PACS: 42.50.Gy, 03.67.Bg, 42.50.Dv, 42.65.Lm.
We present an efficient and convenient scheme to entangle multiple optical fields via electromagnetically induced transparency in an atomic ensemble. The atomic spin wave, produced through electromagnetically induced transparency in the Lambda-type configuration in an atomic ensemble, can be described by a Bose operator and acts as the entangler. By using the entangler, any desired number of nondegenerate narrow-band continuous-variable entangled fields, in principle, can be generated through stimulated Raman scattering processes, which holds great promise for applications in scalable quantum communication and quantum networks.
Quantum entanglement provides an essential resource for quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum network. How to conveniently and efficiently produce entanglement between bright light beams presents a challenging task to build realistic quantum information processing networks. Here, we present an efficient and convenient way to realize a novel quantum phenomenon, named electromagnetically induced entanglement, in the conventional Λ-type three-level atomic system driven by a strong pump field and a relatively weak probe field. Nearly perfect entanglement between the two fields can be achieved with a low coherence decay rate between the two lower levels, high pump-field intensity, and large optical depth of the atomic ensemble. The physical origin is quantum coherence between the lower doublet produced by the pump and probe fields, similar to the well-known electromagnetically induced transparency. This method would greatly facilitate the generation of nondegenerate narrow-band continuous-variable entanglement between bright light beams by using only coherent laser fields, and may find potential and broad applications in realistic quantum information processing.
Quantum networks are composed of quantum nodes which coherently interact by way of quantum channels. They offer powerful capabilities for quantum computation, communication, and metrology. A generic requirement for these realizations is the capability to generate and store quantum states among multiple quantum nodes, and to disseminate these resources throughout the network via the quantum channels. In this thesis, I describe a series of experiments whereby single excitations in atomic ensembles are strongly coupled to optical modes and provide efficient means for the coherent control of entangled states between matter and light. By following the seminal proposal by Duan et al., we have generated measurement-induced entanglement of an excitation between two cold atomic ensembles. Using this system, we investigated the relationship for the global bipartite entanglement and local correlations in its subsystems. In addition, we achieved functional quantum nodes for entanglement distribution. Two pairs of remote ensembles at two quantum nodes were prepared into entangled states in a heralded and asynchronous fashion by the conditional controls of the entanglement. The quantum states of the ensembles were then distributed into polarization entangled states of photons. We also prepared an analogous quantum state and transferred the nonlocal coherence between two pairs of heralded entangled atomic ensembles, providing a step towards entanglement connection. Beyond such probabilistic approaches, we demonstrated an experiment where entanglement between two quantum memories is created by the reversible and deterministic mapping of an entangled state of light via dynamic electromagnetically induced transparency. This experiment opens novel prospects of integrating hybrid quantum systems by way of reversible quantum interfaces between light and matter. Then, we extended our work to multipartite quantum systems. We theoretically investigated the characterization of multipartite mode-entangled states by way of quantum uncertainty relations, and introduced theoretical tools to verify the entanglement orders in multipartite systems. In particular, we achieved entanglement for one delocalized photon among multiple optical modes (N > 2). Finally, we have achieved measurement-induced entanglement of spin waves among four quantum memories. The individual atomic components for the entangled W state of the four ensembles were then coherently converted into four propagating entangled beams of light via superradiant emissions. We observed the statistical and dynamic transitions for the multipartite entangled spin waves. Experiments described in this thesis thereby represent significant advances of experimental and theoretical capabilities to generate, store, transfer, and characterize entanglement of matter and light over quantum networks.
We present a proof-of-principle way to generate nondegenerate multipartite continuous-variable entanglement via atomic spin wave induced by the strong coupling and probe fields in the \ensuremath{\Lambda}-type electromagnetically induced transparency configuration in an atomic ensemble. Quantum correlated or anticorrelated and entangled Stokes and anti-Stokes fields, simultaneously produced through scattering the applied laser fields off the atomic spin wave, can be achieved. This method can, in principle, be extended to flexibly and conveniently create multicolor multipartite entangled narrow-band fields to any desired order with long correlation time, which may find promising applications in quantum information processing and quantum networks.