The asymmetric single-atom beamsplitter

R Tatham, Natalia Korolkova

We present a protocol for increasing the entanglement between two atomic ensembles based on applying an approximate atom-light beamsplitter transformation to both ensembles. The effective asymmetric atom-light beamsplitter is created via a double-pass quantum non-demolition interaction between polarized light and a spin polarized atomic ensemble, derived from the linearised dipole interaction. The entanglement concentration protocol itself uses the procrustean method, similar to that first devised for light by Browne et al [2003 Phys Rev A 67 062320] and includes photon counting after the interaction as the required non-Gaussian element. We calculate the output logarithmic negativity in this scheme and show that entanglement between macroscopic ensembles can be increased with probabilities comparable with those for the light scheme even if on-off detectors of low efficiency are used.

Dirk Müller

Junlin Liang, T. B. Pittman

The visibility of the quantum interference “dip” seen in the Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment is optimized when a symmetric 50/50 beamsplitter is used in the interferometer. Here we show that the reduction in visibility caused by an asymmetric beamsplitter can be compensated by manipulating the polarization states of the two input photons. We experimentally demonstrate this by using a highly asymmetric 10/90 beamsplitter, and converting an initial dip visibility of 22% to a compensated value of 99%.

Christian Brand, Michele Sclafani, Christian Knobloch +9 more

van K.A.H. Leeuwen

P. B. Wigley, Kyle S. Hardman, Christian Freier +5 more

A method for mitigating the readout delay characteristic of Bragg-based atom interferometry is presented, utilizing an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer sequence to generate spatial fringes that are read out while still overlapped. The time of flight after the final beamsplitter is engineered to facilitate constructive overlap of the fringes on the output states. A noise analysis performed using a precision atom interferometer is presented, comparing the traditional separated symmetric scheme with that of the separated and overlapped asymmetric scheme showing no significant increase in short-term phase noise.