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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Tomography of Distant Single Atoms

Florian Fertig, Yiru Zhou, Pooja Malik, Tim van Leent, Harald Weinfurter

Published Jun 26, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Entanglement of distant quantum memories forms the building block of quantum networks. Neutral atoms with long coherence times are sought for candidates for quantum network links (QNLs). Our experiment with two nodes, 400 m apart, employs single optically trapped Rubidium-87 atoms as quantum memories. Via excitations, entanglement between the atom and spontaneously emitted single photons is created in both traps. Using single-mode fibers, the photons are interfered in a Bell-state measurement thereby swapping the entanglement from the two atom-photon pairs to the atoms with a projective measurement. A new collection setup [1] allows for an increased entanglement event rate of ∼1/20 Hz allowing detailed state analysis and reconstruction of the entangled state.

DOI
10.1109/cleo/europe-eqec57999.2023.10232797

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Entanglement of distant quantum memories forms the building block of quantum networks. Neutral atoms with long coherence times are sought for candidates for quantum network links (QNLs). Our experiment with two nodes, 400 m apart, employs single optically trapped Rubidium-87 atoms as quantum memories. Via excitations, entanglement between the atom and spontaneously emitted single photons is created in both traps. Using single-mode fibers, the photons are interfered in a Bell-state measurement thereby swapping the entanglement from the two atom-photon pairs to the atoms with a projective measurement. A new collection setup [1] allows for an increased entanglement event rate of ∼1/20 Hz allowing detailed state analysis and reconstruction of the entangled state.
We report the observation of entanglement between a single trapped atom and a single photon at remote locations. The degree of coherence of the entangled atom-photon pair is verified via appropriate local correlation measurements, after communicating the photon via an optical fiber link of 300 m length to a receiver 3.5 m apart. In addition, we measured the temporal evolution of the atomic density matrix after projecting the atom via a state measurement of the photon onto several well-defined spin states. We find that the state of the single atom dephases on a time scale of 150 micros, which represents an important step towards long-distance quantum networking with individual neutral atoms.
The realization of a large-scale quantum network of interconnected quantum nodes is one of the most promising directions in quantum technology. Such a network distributes entanglement between remote matter qubits via single photons in optical fibers, enabling quantum repeaters and long-distance secure communication and supporting emerging applications such as distributed quantum computing and network-enhanced metrology. To realize this vision, proposed architectures require quantum nodes that provide an efficient quantum light-matter interface for entanglement generation, serve as a quantum memory allowing long-lived storage of quantum states, and have the possibility to connect to telecommunication fiber-based photonic channels. This thesis presents the development and experimental realization of a quantum network node based on a single Rb-87 atom. A single atom is confined in a tightly focused optical dipole trap, and entanglement is generated between the polarization of an emitted photon and the Zeeman state of the atom. To enable long-lived quantum storage, we coherently map the atomic qubit to a basis less sensitive to magnetic fields using Zeeman-state-selective Raman transfer, reducing magnetic field sensitivity by a factor of 500. Such hyperfine qubit control is implemented via a two-photon Raman process driven by a laser field that is amplitude modulated at the qubit splitting using a fiber-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer. With this approach, we achieve a 1/e storage lifetime of 10 ms, extending coherence by a factor of 30 compared with the initial qubit encoding. Residual dephasing arises primarily from position-dependent effective magnetic fields caused by the tightly focused optical dipole trap beam together with atomic motion, and the differential AC-Stark shifts come from the trap detuning. While the first can be fully canceled via a standing-wave dipole trap, which needs to change the trap setup. We mitigate the second effects with a spin-echo pulse, extending coherence by a factor of two. Nonetheless, the significantly longer coherence time already allows high-fidelity entanglement distribution over fiber links with a length of a few hundred kilometers. To reduce fiber attenuation for long-distance distribution, we convert the emitted 780 nm single photons to the low-loss telecom S band using difference-frequency generation in a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide, pumped at 1607 nm to produce 1517 nm photons. By combining long-lived quantum memory with a telecom interface, we demonstrated long-distance atom-photon entanglement distribution through 50 km and 101 km of spooled fiber with fidelities of 85% and 71%, respectively, establishing a key component for scalable quantum communication. These results establish neutral atom nodes as promising building blocks for metropolitan-scale quantum networking and outline a scalable path toward repeater protocols based on multiplexing memories and Rydberg-mediated interactions.
An experiment is performed where a single rubidium atom trapped within a high-finesse optical cavity emits two independently triggered entangled photons. The entanglement is mediated by the atom and is characterized both by a Bell inequality violation of S=2.5, as well as full quantum-state tomography, resulting in a fidelity exceeding F=90%. The combination of cavity-QED and trapped atom techniques makes our protocol inherently deterministic--an essential step for the generation of scalable entanglement between the nodes of a distributed quantum network.
Summary form only given. Neutral atoms trapped inside an optical cavity provide an ideal platform for the implementation of quantum networks [1]. In such a network, nodes containing multiple atomic qubits are essential for the construction of a quantum repeater as they allow for entanglement swapping and thus the generation of entanglement between qubits over long distances. Here we will show the realisation of such a multi-qubit network node containing two87Rb atoms (see Figure. 1) in an optical cavity. Local entanglement between the two atoms is created with an experimental technique called quantum state carving. It relies on the reflection of weak coherent pulses from the cavity and subsequent measurement of the photons polarisation [2]. Postselection on the cases where the photon changed its linear polarisation by 90° after the reflection projects the atomic state onto an entangled state. This measurement technique is intrinsically probabilistic, but heralded. We will show the generation of all four maximally entangled atomic Bell states, a key resource for a plethora of quantum communication protocols. We will give an overview over the necessary experimental toolbox including the collective manipulation and readout of the two atomic qubits.
Long-distance entanglement distribution is the key task for quantum networks, enabling applications such as secure communication and distributed quantum computing. Here we report on novel developments extending the reach for sharing entanglement between a single 87^{87}87Rb atom and a single photon over long optical fibers. To maintain a high fidelity during the long flight times through such fibers, the coherence time of the single atom is prolonged to 7 ms by applying a long-lived qubit encoding. In addition, the attenuation in the fibers is minimized by converting the photon's wavelength to the telecom S-Band via polarization-preserving quantum frequency conversion. This enables to observe entanglement between the atomic quantum memory and the emitted photon after passing 101 km of optical fiber with a fidelity better than 70.8$\pm$2.4%. The fidelity, however, is no longer reduced due to loss of coherence of the atom or photon but in the current setup rather due to detector dark counts, showing the suitability of our platform to realize city-to-city scale quantum network links.
Quantum teleportation and quantum memory are two crucial elements for large-scale quantum networks. With the help of prior distributed entanglement as a "quantum channel," quantum teleportation provides an intriguing means to faithfully transfer quantum states among distant locations without actual transmission of the physical carriers [Bennett CH, et al. (1993) Phys Rev Lett 70(13):1895-1899]. Quantum memory enables controlled storage and retrieval of fast-flying photonic quantum bits with stationary matter systems, which is essential to achieve the scalability required for large-scale quantum networks. Combining these two capabilities, here we realize quantum teleportation between two remote atomic-ensemble quantum memory nodes, each composed of ∼10(8) rubidium atoms and connected by a 150-m optical fiber. The spin wave state of one atomic ensemble is mapped to a propagating photon and subjected to Bell state measurements with another single photon that is entangled with the spin wave state of the other ensemble. Two-photon detection events herald the success of teleportation with an average fidelity of 88(7)%. Besides its fundamental interest as a teleportation between two remote macroscopic objects, our technique may be useful for quantum information transfer between different nodes in quantum networks and distributed quantum computing.