Entanglement created by spontaneously generated coherence

We propose a scheme able to generate on demand a steady-state entanglement between two non-degenerate cavity modes. The scheme relies on the interaction of the cavity modes with driven two or three-level atoms which act as a coupler to build entanglement between the modes. We show that in the limit of a strong driving, crucial for the generation of entanglement between the modes is to imbalance populations of the dressed states of the driven atomic transition. In the case of a three-level V-type atom, we find that a stationary entanglement can be created on demand by tuning the Rabi frequency of the driving field to the difference between the atomic transition frequencies. The resulting degeneracy of the energy levels together with the spontaneously generated coherence generates a steady-state entanglement between the cavity modes. It is shown that the condition for the maximal entanglement coincides with the collapse of the atomic system into a pure trapping state. We also show that the creation of entanglement depends strongly on the mutual polarization of the transition atomic dipole moments.Comment: Published versio

Three-level atom in a broadband squeezed vacuum field. II. Applications

Using the formalism developed earlier, we treat spontaneous emission from a three-level atom (ladder system) interacting with a broadband squeezed vacuum field. We obtain expressions for the transient and steady-state populations of the atomic levels with the conditions that the atom interacts with either a multimode perfect squeezed vacuum field, or a three-dimensional vacuum field in which the squeezed modes lie within a solid angle over which squeezing is propagated. The results are compared with those obtained for the atom interacting with a thermal field. We show that in the perfect case the first excited state is not populated when the squeezed vacuum field is in a minimum-uncertainty squeezed state. Moreover, the second excited state can have a steady-state population larger than 1/2. These features are completely absent when the atom interacts with the thermal field. In addition, for a low-intensity squeezed vacuum field the population in the second excited state exhibits a linear rather than quadratic dependence on the intensity of the squeezed vacuum field. In the three-dimensional case the presence of unsqueezed modes considerably reduces the effect of squeezing on spontaneous emission. However, a significant reduction in a population of the first excited state and a population larger than 1/2 in the second excited state can be achieved provided the squeezing is propagated over a large solid angle. We also discuss the effect of the two-photon detuning between the double carrier frequency of the squeezing and atomic transition frequency 3 on the steady-state atomic population

Comment on Phase-sensitive population decay: the two-atom Dicke model in a broadband squeezed vacuum

A recent paper [G. M. Palma and P. L. Knight, Phys. Rev. A 39, 1962 (1989)] has stated that the two-atom Dicke model exhibits phase-dependent population decay. In this Comment we show that population decay is invariant with respect to the input phase angle of squeezing in the two-atom Dicke model

Dipole-dipole interaction between orthogonal dipole moments in time-dependent geometries

In two nearby atoms, the dipole-dipole interaction can couple transitions with orthogonal dipole moments. This orthogonal coupling accounts for a number of interesting effects, but strongly depends on the geometry of the setup. Here, we discuss several setups of interest where the geometry is not fixed, such as particles in a trap or gases, by averaging over different sets of geometries. Two averaging methods are compared. In the first method, it is assumed that the internal electronic evolution is much faster than the change of geometry, whereas in the second, it is vice versa. We find that the orthogonal coupling typically survives even extensive averaging over different geometries, albeit with qualitatively different results for the two averaging methods. Typically, one- and two-dimensional averaging ranges modelling, e.g., low-dimensional gases, turn out to be the most promising model systems.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figure

Quantum interference in optical fields and atomic radiation

We discuss the connection between quantum interference effects in optical beams and radiation fields emitted from atomic systems. We illustrate this connection by a study of the first- and second-order correlation functions of optical fields and atomic dipole moments. We explore the role of correlations between the emitting systems and present examples of practical methods to implement two systems with non-orthogonal dipole moments. We also derive general conditions for quantum interference in a two-atom system and for a control of spontaneous emission. The relation between population trapping and dark states is also discussed. Moreover, we present quantum dressed-atom models of cancellation of spontaneous emission, amplification on dark transitions, fluorescence quenching and coherent population trapping.Comment: To be published in Journal of Modern Optics Special Issue on Quantum Interferenc

First-order coherence versus entanglement in a nano-mechanical cavity

The coherence and correlation properties of effective bosonic modes of a nano-mechanical cavity composed of an oscillating mirror and containing an optical lattice of regularly trapped atoms are studied. The system is modeled as a three-mode system, two orthogonal polariton modes representing the coupled optical lattice and the cavity mode, and one mechanical mode representing the oscillating mirror. We examine separately the cases of two-mode and three-mode interactions which are distinguished by a suitable tuning of the mechanical mode to the polariton mode frequencies. In the two-mode case, we find that the occurrence of entanglement between one of the polariton modes and the mechanical mode is highly sensitive to the presence of the first-order coherence between the modes. In particular, the creation of the first-order coherence among the modes is achieved at the expense of entanglement between the modes. In the three-mode case, we show that no entanglement is created between the independent polariton modes if both modes are coupled to the mechanical mode by the parametric interaction. There is no entanglement between the polaritons even if the oscillating mirror is damped by a squeezed vacuum field. The interaction creates the first-order coherence between the polaritons and the degree of coherence can, in principle, be as large as unity. This demonstrates that the oscillating mirror can establish the first-order coherence between two independent thermal modes. A further analysis shows that two independent thermal modes can be made entangled in the system only when one of the modes is coupled to the intermediate mode by a parametric interaction and the other is coupled by a linear-mixing interaction.Comment: Published versio

Entanglement and spin squeezing in the two-atom Dicke model

We analyze the relation between the entanglement and spin-squeezing parameter in the two-atom Dicke model and identify the source of the discrepancy recently reported by Banerjee and Zhou et al that one can observe entanglement without spin squeezing. Our calculations demonstrate that there are two criteria for entanglement, one associated with the two-photon coherences that create two-photon entangled states, and the other associated with populations of the collective states. We find that the spin-squeezing parameter correctly predicts entanglement in the two-atom Dicke system only if it is associated with two-photon entangled states, but fails to predict entanglement when it is associated with the entangled symmetric state. This explicitly identifies the source of the discrepancy and explains why the system can be entangled without spin-squeezing. We illustrate these findings in three examples of the interaction of the system with thermal, classical squeezed vacuum and quantum squeezed vacuum fields.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Initial-Phase Spectroscopy as a Control of Entangled Systems

We introduce the concept of initial-phase spectroscopy as a control of the dynamics of entangled states encoded into a two-atom system interacting with a broadband squeezed vacuum field. We illustrate our considerations by examining the transient spectrum of the field emitted by two systems, the small sample (Dicke) and the spatially extended (non-Dicke) models. It is found that the shape of the spectral components depends crucially on the relative phase between the initial entangled state and the squeezed field. We follow the temporal evolution of the spectrum and show that depending on the relative phase a hole burning can occur in one of the two spectral lines. We compare the transient behavior of the spectrum with the time evolution of the initial entanglement and find that the hole burning can be interpreted as a manifestation of the phenomenon of entanglement sudden death. In addition, we find that in the case of the non-Dicke model, the collective damping rate may act like an artificial tweezer that rotates the phase of the squeezed field.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure

Theory of quantum fluctuations of optical dissipative structures and its application to the squeezing properties of bright cavity solitons

We present a method for the study of quantum fluctuations of dissipative structures forming in nonlinear optical cavities, which we illustrate in the case of a degenerate, type I optical parametric oscillator. The method consists in (i) taking into account explicitly, through a collective variable description, the drift of the dissipative structure caused by the quantum noise, and (ii) expanding the remaining -internal- fluctuations in the biorthonormal basis associated to the linear operator governing the evolution of fluctuations in the linearized Langevin equations. We obtain general expressions for the squeezing and intensity fluctuations spectra. Then we theoretically study the squeezing properties of a special dissipative structure, namely, the bright cavity soliton. After reviewing our previous result that in the linear approximation there is a perfectly squeezed mode irrespectively of the values of the system parameters, we consider squeezing at the bifurcation points, and the squeezing detection with a plane--wave local oscillator field, taking also into account the effect of the detector size on the level of detectable squeezing.Comment: 10 figure