Coherent Light Fields for Entanglement based Quantum Communication

Anton Zeilinger

Fei Wang, Xiangming Hu

We show that dark-state resonances can be a fundamental mechanism for the entanglement between light and matter. While two optical fields trap an ensemble of three-level $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ atoms into the dark state, the coherence is created between the two metastable states, and the two fields undergo no absorption. The trapped atoms behave like a coherently coupled two-party reservoir and act on the two fields. As a result, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entanglement is obtainable between the atomic ensemble and one collective field under proper parameter conditions. Long-lived atomic coherence and no need of nonclassical input light are the advantages for quantum communications between light and matter based on the present mechanism.

Xihua Yang, Bolin Xue, Junxiang Zhang +1 more

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.

Harald Weinfurter

Anton Zeilinger

Ephraim Shahmoon, Shimon Levit, Roee Ozeri

We study the use of squeezed light for qubit coherent control and compare it with the coherent-state control field case. We calculate the entanglement between a short pulse of resonant squeezed light and a two-level atom in free space and the resulting operation error. We find that the squeezing phase, the phase of the light field, and the atomic superposition phase all determine whether atom-pulse mode entanglement and the gate error are enhanced or suppressed. When averaged over all possible qubit initial states, the gate error would not decrease by a practically useful amount and would in fact increase in most cases. However, the enhanced entanglement may be of use in quantum communication schemes. We discuss the possibility of measuring the increased gate error as a signature of the enhancement of entanglement by squeezing.