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arXiv:1511.03050 · Physical Review A

Generation of atom-light entanglement in an optical cavity for quantum enhanced atom interferometry

Simon A. Haine, W. Y. Sarah Lau

Published Feb 3, 2016• 21 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the generation of atom-light entanglement via Raman superradiance in an optical cavity, and show how this can be used to enhance the sensitivity of atom interferometry. We model a realistic optical cavity, and show that by careful temporal shaping of the optical local oscillator used to measure the light emitted from the cavity, information in the optical mode can be combined with the signal from the atom interferometer to reduce the quantum noise, and thus increase the sensitivity. It was found in Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 053002 (2013) that an atomic ``seed'' was required in order to reduce spontaneous emission and allow for single mode behavior of the device. In this paper we find that the optical cavity reduces the need for an atomic seed, which allows for stronger atom-light correlations and a greater level of quantum enhancement.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.93.023607

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We theoretically investigate the generation of atom-light entanglement via Raman superradiance in an optical cavity, and show how this can be used to enhance the sensitivity of atom interferometry. We model a realistic optical cavity, and show that by careful temporal shaping of the optical local oscillator used to measure the light emitted from the cavity, information in the optical mode can be combined with the signal from the atom interferometer to reduce the quantum noise, and thus increase the sensitivity. It was found in Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 053002 (2013) that an atomic ``seed'' was required in order to reduce spontaneous emission and allow for single mode behavior of the device. In this paper we find that the optical cavity reduces the need for an atomic seed, which allows for stronger atom-light correlations and a greater level of quantum enhancement.
The problem of on-demand generation of entanglement between single-atom qubits via a common photonic channel is examined within the framework of optical interferometry. As expected, for a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with coherent laser beam as input, a high-finesse optical cavity is required to overcome sensitivity to spontaneous emission. We show, however, that with a twin-Fock input, useful entanglement can in principle be created without cavity enhancement. Both approaches require single-photon resolving detectors, and best results would be obtained by combining both cavity feedback and twin-Fock inputs. Such an approach may allow a fidelity of 0.99 using a two-photon input and currently available mirror and detector technology. In addition, we study interferometers based on NOON states, i.e., maximally entangled NNN-particle states, and show that they perform similarly to the twin-Fock states, yet without the need for high-precision photodetectors. The present interferometrical approach can serve as a universal, scalable circuit element for quantum information processing, from which fast quantum gates, deterministic teleportation, entanglement swapping, etc., can be realized with the aid of single-qubit operations.
We propose an enhanced optical interferometer based on tailored non-classical light generated by nonlinear dynamics and projective measurements in a three-level atom cavity QED system. A coherent state in the cavity becomes dynamically entangled with two ground states of the atom and is transformed to a macroscopic superposition state via a projective measurement on the atom. We show that the resulting highly non-classical state can improve interferometric precision measurements well beyond the shot-noise limit once combined with a classical laser pulse at the input of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. For a practical implementation, we identify an efficient phase shift estimation scheme based on the counting of photons at the interferometer output. Photon losses and photon-counting errors deteriorate the interferometer sensitivity, but we demonstrate that it still can be significantly better than the shot-noise limit under realistic conditions.
Atom interferometers are among the most sensitive instruments for precision measurements and tests of fundamental physics. Their performance, however, is ultimately limited by quantum projection noise when uncorrelated atomic ensembles are employed. Cavity-assisted generation of entangled states has proven to be a promising route toward quantum-enhanced interferometry beyond the standard quantum limit. In this work, we present the realization and characterization of a monolithic bow-tie cavity developed to achieve a strong collective atom-light coupling with strontium atoms. Unlike conventional standing-wave Fabry-Pérot resonators, the traveling-wave geometry of the bow-tie cavity provides homogeneous atom-light coupling over the entire atomic ensemble, making it particularly suitable for entanglement-enhanced atom interferometry with freely falling atoms. The monolithic cavity architecture presents several scientifically relevant features such as high mechanical stability, high finesse, robustness against mirror misalignment, optical and atomic access and the option of generating squeezed states through different strategies. The cavity was realized for operation on the strontium (5s2)1S0−(5s5p)3P1(5s^2) ^1S_0-(5s5p) ^3P_1(5s2)1S0​−(5s5p)3P1​ transition at 689 nm and achieves a finesse of F=5.7×104\mathcal{F}=5.7\times 10^4F=5.7×104 while keeping the transmission of a single mirror sufficiently large to allow for efficient atomic information extraction. In this geometry, the cavity supports two foci with waists of 164 μμμm and 31 μμμm which gives access to different regimes of atom-cavity coupling. For ensembles containing up to 10510^5105 atoms, the cavity is expected to enable a Wineland squeezing parameter ξ2ξ^2ξ2 of 24 dB through cavity-feedback squeezing, and 28 dB through quantum non-demolition measurements, demonstrating its potential as a platform for next-generation quantum-enhanced atom interferometers.
We examine the field-field and field-atom entanglements generated by \ensuremath{\Lambda}-type three-level atoms placed in an optical cavity driven above threshold by two coherent input optical fields. It is shown that under realistic experimental conditions entanglement between the two output cavity fields as well as between the fields and the atoms can be achieved when the two cavity fields are both one- and two-photon (Raman) resonant with the atomic transitions, as in the configuration for electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The entanglement has similar features to pump-signal-idler three-color entanglement in an above-threshold optical parametric oscillator [Villar et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 140504 (2006)]. This cavity-enhanced atom-field cooperative coupling could enable convenient and efficient generation of bright, nondegenerate, narrow-band entangled fields, which may find potential applications in realistic quantum communications and networking protocols.
Abstract An ensemble of atoms can operate as a quantum sensor by placing atoms in a superposition of two different states. Upon measurement of the sensor, each atom is individually projected into one of the two states. Creating quantum correlations between the atoms, that is entangling them, could lead to resolutions surpassing the standard quantum limit 1–3 set by projections of individual atoms. Large amounts of entanglement 4–6 involving the internal degrees of freedom of laser-cooled atomic ensembles 4–16 have been generated in collective cavity quantum-electrodynamics systems, in which many atoms simultaneously interact with a single optical cavity mode. Here we report a matter-wave interferometer in a cavity quantum-electrodynamics system of 700 atoms that are entangled in their external degrees of freedom. In our system, each individual atom falls freely under gravity and simultaneously traverses two paths through space while entangled with the other atoms. We demonstrate both quantum non-demolition measurements and cavity-mediated spin interactions for generating squeezed momentum states with directly observed sensitivity 3 . 4−0.9+1.13\,.\,{4}_{-0.9}^{+1.1}3.4−0.9+1.1​ 3 . 4 − 0.9 + 1.1 dB and 2 . 5−0.6+0.62\,.\,{5}_{-0.6}^{+0.6}2.5−0.6+0.6​ 2 . 5 − 0.6 + 0.6 dB below the standard quantum limit, respectively. We successfully inject an entangled state into a Mach–Zehnder light-pulse interferometer with directly observed sensitivity 1 . 7−0.5+0.51\,.\,{7}_{-0.5}^{+0.5}1.7−0.5+0.5​ 1 . 7 − 0.5 + 0.5 dB below the standard quantum limit. The combination of particle delocalization and entanglement in our approach may influence developments of enhanced inertial sensors 17,18 , searches for new physics, particles and fields 19–23 , future advanced gravitational wave detectors 24,25 and accessing beyond mean-field quantum many-body physics 26–30 .
Macroscopic arrays of cold atoms trapped in optical cavities can reach the strong atom-light collective coupling regime thanks to the simultaneous interactions of the cavity mode with the atomic ensemble. In a recent work [R. J. Lewis-Swan, D. Barberena, J. A. Muniz, J. R. K. Cline, D. Young, J. K. Thompson, and A. M. Rey, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 193602 (2020)] we reported a protocol that takes advantage of the strong and collective atom-light interactions in cavity QED systems for precise electric-field sensing in the optical domain. We showed that it can provide between 10 and 20 dB of metrological gain over the standard quantum limit in current cavity QED experiments operating with long-lived alkaline-earth atoms. Here, we give a more in depth discussion of the protocol using both exact analytical calculations and numerical simulations, and describe the precise conditions under which the predicted enhancement holds after thoroughly accounting for both photon loss and spontaneous emission, natural decoherence mechanisms in current experiments. The analysis presented here not only serves to benchmark the protocol and its utility in cavity QED arrays but also sets the conditions required for its applicability in other experimental platforms such as arrays of trapped ions.