Quantum entanglement is a significant quantum resource, which plays a central role in quantum communication. For realizing quantum information network, it is important to establish deterministic quantum entanglement among multiple spatial-separated quantum memories, and then the stored entanglement is transferred into the quantum channels for distributing and transmitting the quantum information at the user-control time. Firstly, we introduce the scheme of deterministic generation polarization squeezed state at 795 nm. A pair of quadrature amplitude squeezed optical fields are prepared by two degenerate optical parameter amplifiers pumped by a laser at 398 nm, and then the polarization squeezed state of light appears by combining the generated two quadrature amplitude squeezed optical beams on a polarizing beam splitter. Secondly, we present the experimental demonstration of tripartite polarization entanglement described by Stokes operators of optical field. The quadrature tripartite entangled states of light corresponding to the resonance with D1 line of rubidium atoms are transformed into the continuous-variable polarization entanglement via polarization beam splitter with three bright local optical beams. Finally, we propose the generation, storage and transfer of deterministic quantum entanglement among three spatially separated atomic ensembles. By the method of electromagnetically induced transparency light-matter interaction, the optical multiple entangled state is mapped into three distant atomic ensembles to build the entanglement among three atomic spin waves. Then, the quantum noise of entanglement stored in the atomic ensembles is transferred to the three space-seperated quadrature entangled light fields through three quantum channels. The existence of entanglement among the three released beams verifies that the system has the ability to maintain the multipartite entanglement. This protocol realizes the entanglement among three distant quantum nodes, and it can be extended to quantum network with more quantum nodes. All of these lay the foundation for realizing the large-scale quantum network communication in the future.
Quantum entanglement is a significant quantum resource, which plays a central role in quantum communication. For realizing quantum information network, it is important to establish deterministic quantum entanglement among multiple spatial-separated quantum memories, and then the stored entanglement is transferred into the quantum channels for distributing and transmitting the quantum information at the user-control time. Firstly, we introduce the scheme of deterministic generation polarization squeezed state at 795 nm. A pair of quadrature amplitude squeezed optical fields are prepared by two degenerate optical parameter amplifiers pumped by a laser at 398 nm, and then the polarization squeezed state of light appears by combining the generated two quadrature amplitude squeezed optical beams on a polarizing beam splitter. Secondly, we present the experimental demonstration of tripartite polarization entanglement described by Stokes operators of optical field. The quadrature tripartite entangled states of light corresponding to the resonance with D1 line of rubidium atoms are transformed into the continuous-variable polarization entanglement via polarization beam splitter with three bright local optical beams. Finally, we propose the generation, storage and transfer of deterministic quantum entanglement among three spatially separated atomic ensembles. By the method of electromagnetically induced transparency light-matter interaction, the optical multiple entangled state is mapped into three distant atomic ensembles to build the entanglement among three atomic spin waves. Then, the quantum noise of entanglement stored in the atomic ensembles is transferred to the three space-seperated quadrature entangled light fields through three quantum channels. The existence of entanglement among the three released beams verifies that the system has the ability to maintain the multipartite entanglement. This protocol realizes the entanglement among three distant quantum nodes, and it can be extended to quantum network with more quantum nodes. All of these lay the foundation for realizing the large-scale quantum network communication in the future.
It is crucial for the physical realization of quantum information networks to first establish entanglement among multiple space-separated quantum memories and then, at a user-controlled moment, to transfer the stored entanglement to quantum channels for distribution and conveyance of information. Here we present an experimental demonstration on generation, storage, and transfer of deterministic quantum entanglement among three spatially separated atomic ensembles. The off-line prepared multipartite entanglement of optical modes is mapped into three distant atomic ensembles to establish entanglement of atomic spin waves via electromagnetically induced transparency light-matter interaction. Then the stored atomic entanglement is transferred into a tripartite quadrature entangled state of light, which is space-separated and can be dynamically allocated to three quantum channels for conveying quantum information. The existence of entanglement among three released optical modes verifies that the system has the capacity to preserve multipartite entanglement. The presented protocol can be directly extended to larger quantum networks with more nodes.Continuous-variable encoding is a promising approach for quantum information and communication networks. Here, the authors show how to map entanglement from three spatial optical modes to three separated atomic samples via electromagnetically induced transparency, releasing it later on demand.
Quantum entanglement is an essential quantum resource. With the development of quantum information science, quantum network consisting of quantum nodes and quantum channels has attracted extensive attention. The development of quantum information network requires the capability of generating, storing and distributing quantum entanglement among multiple quantum nodes. It is significant to construct the quantum information, and it has very important applications in the distributed quantum computation and quantum internet. Here we propose a simple and feasible scheme to deterministically entangle three distant atomic ensembles via the interference and feedforward network of the light-atom mixed entanglement. Firstly, three atomic ensembles placed at three remote nodes in a quantum network are prepared into the mixed entangled state of light and atomic ensembles via the spontaneous Raman scattering (SRS) process. Then, the first and second Stokes optical field are interfered on an R1∶T1 optical beam splitter (BS1), and one of the output optical fields from the first optical beam splitter is interfered with the third Stokes field on the second R2∶T2 optical beam splitter (BS2). The quantum fluctuations of the amplitude and phase quadratures of these three output optical fields from BS1 and BS2 are detected by three sets of balanced homodyne detectors, respectively. Finally, the detected signals of the amplitude and phase quadratures are fed to the three atomic ensembles via the radio frequency coils to establish the entanglement among three remote atomic ensembles. At the user-controlled time, three read optical pulses can be applied to these three atomic ensembles to convert the stored entangled state from the atomic spin waves into the anti-Stokes optical fields via the SRS process. According to the tripartite inseparability criterion, the correlation variance combinations of these three anti-Stokes optical fields can be used to verify the performance of entanglement of three atomic ensembles. This scheme can be extended to larger-scale quantum information network with different physical systems and more atomic nodes. Moreover, the entanglement distillation can be combined with this scheme to realize the entanglement among longer distance quantum nodes.
The multipartite polarization entangled states of bright optical beams directly associating with the spin states of atomic ensembles are one of the essential resources in the future quantum information networks, which can be conveniently utilized to transfer and convert quantum states across a network composed of many atomic nodes. In this letter, we present the experimental demonstration of tripartite polarization entanglement described by Stokes operators of optical field. The tripartite entangled states of light at the frequency resonant with D1 line of Rubidium atoms are transformed into the continuous variable polarization entanglement among three bright optical beams via an optical beam splitter network. The obtained entanglement is confirmed by the extended criterion for polarization entanglement of multipartite quantized optical modes.
Abstract Quantum network is constituted by quantum channels and quantum nodes. The interaction between non‐classical optical modes and quantum nodes, as well as quantum entanglement among multiple distant quantum nodes are the building blocks of quantum network, which enable to achieve a plethora of quantum information protocols, such as distributed quantum computation, quantum state transfer across quantum nodes, and quantum clock network. On one hand, the multipartite non‐classical states of optical modes, which can directly interact with atomic ensembles, are required for the practical applications of quantum network. On the other hand, a crucial goal of quantum network is to unconditionally generate and on‐demand store and retrieve multipartite entangled states in atomic ensembles. This paper presents an up‐to‐date review on recent developments in these areas: multipartite continuous‐variable polarization entangled optical modes have been created by transforming quantum state from quadrature into polarization components; and a scalable quantum network with deterministic entanglement among multiple quantum memories has been constructed by transferring spatially separated entangled optical modes into atomic ensembles.
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.
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.