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Quantum Interface between Light and Atomic Ensembles

Hanna Krauter, Jacob Friis Sherson, Jensen, Kasper, T. Fernholz, Jonas Schou Neergaard-Nielsen, Nielsen, Bo Melholt, Daniel Oblak, Patrick Windpassinger, Niels Kjærgaard, Andrew J. Hilliard, Christina B. Olausson, Jörg Helge Müller, Eugene Simon Polzik

Published Jan 1, 2007• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed astounding progress in the ability to control quantum systems making the vision to create working quantum networks more realistic than ever. A key component in any quantum network is certainly the interface between stationary and flying carriers of information. One avenue towards a reliable interface makes use of macroscopic atomic ensembles to distribute fragile quantum states over many particles. We review here our experiments and recent progress with atomic samples in different temperature regimes and with non-classical light sources of suitable spectral characteristics for efficient coupling to atomic ensembles.

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Recent years have witnessed astounding progress in the ability to control quantum systems making the vision to create working quantum networks more realistic than ever. A key component in any quantum network is certainly the interface between stationary and flying carriers of information. One avenue towards a reliable interface makes use of macroscopic atomic ensembles to distribute fragile quantum states over many particles. We review here our experiments and recent progress with atomic samples in different temperature regimes and with non-classical light sources of suitable spectral characteristics for efficient coupling to atomic ensembles.
Current experiments in our group explore the quantum interface between matter and light, with the goal of achieving coherent control for implementing quantum information protocols and quantum networks. We outline recent progress in this direction, including localization to the ground state of motion for an atom trapped in an optical cavity, observation of strong coupling between single Cesium atoms and a monolithic resonator, and generation and characterization of entanglement stored in remote atomic ensembles.
Summary form only given. A new approach to the problem of the quantum interface between light and atoms has been recently developed. The method utilizes free space dispersive interaction between pulses of light and spin polarized atomic ensembles. Entanglement between the polarization state of light and the collective spin state of atoms is established by measurement, more precisely by detection of light in a certain polarization basis. In the first demonstration of this approach we have generated a long-lived entangled state of two separate macroscopic atomic samples by a polarization measurement on light transmitted through the samples. We then have shown that this approach also works for mapping of a quantum state of light onto long-lived atomic spin state paving the road towards realization of the quantum memory for light. Recently we have also extended the free space light-atoms interface beyond the continuous variables in the proposal, where a coherent superposition "cat" state of an atomic ensemble is generated by a measurement sequence. Progress with other communication protocols such as atomic state teleportation and multiparty networks will be presented.
Abstract Quantum networks play an extremely important role in quantum information science, with application to quantum communication, computation, metrology, and fundamental tests. One of the key challenges for implementing a quantum network is to distribute entangled flying qubits to spatially separated nodes, at which quantum interfaces or transducers map the entanglement onto stationary qubits. The stationary qubits at the separated nodes constitute quantum memories realized in matter while the flying qubits constitute quantum channels realized in photons. Dedicated efforts around the world for more than 20 years have resulted in both major theoretical and experimental progress toward entangling quantum nodes and ultimately building a global quantum network. Here, the development of quantum networks and the experimental progress over the past two decades leading to the current state of the art for generating entanglement of quantum nodes based on various physical systems such as single atoms, cold atomic ensembles, trapped ions, diamonds with nitrogen‐vacancy centers, and solid‐state host doped with rare‐earth ions are reviewed. Along the way, the merits are discussed and the potential of each of these systems toward realizing a quantum network is compared.
During the past decade the interaction of light with multiatom ensembles has attracted much attention as a basic building block for quantum information processing and quantum state engineering. The field started with the realization that optically thick free space ensembles can be efficiently interfaced with quantum optical fields. By now the atomic ensemble-light interfaces have become a powerful alternative to the cavity-enhanced interaction of light with single atoms. Various mechanisms used for the quantum interface are discussed, including quantum nondemolition or Faraday interaction, quantum measurement and feedback, Raman interaction, photon echo, and electromagnetically induced transparency. This review provides a common theoretical frame for these processes, describes basic experimental techniques and media used for quantum interfaces, and reviews several key experiments on quantum memory for light, quantum entanglement between atomic ensembles and light, and quantum teleportation with atomic ensembles. The two types of quantum measurements which are most important for the interface are discussed: homodyne detection and photon counting. This review concludes with an outlook on the future of atomic ensembles as an enabling technology in quantum information processing.
Atomic ensembles containing a large number of atoms have been proved to be an effective medium for quantum-state (quantum information) engineering and processing via their coupling with multi-photon light pulses. The general mechanism of this coupling, which involves continuous quantum variables for light and atoms, is described. The efficient quantum interface between light and atoms has led to the recent demonstration of an entangled state of two macroscopic atomic objects, more precisely two caesium gas samples. Based on this result, a proposal for teleportation of an entangled state of two atomic samples (entanglement swapping) is presented.