228 research outputs found
Entanglement of bosonic modes in symmetric graphs
The ground and thermal states of a quadratic hamiltonian representing the
interaction of bosonic modes or particles are always Gaussian states. We
investigate the entanglement properties of these states for the case where the
interactions are represented by harmonic forces acting along the edges of
symmetric graphs, i.e. 1, 2, and 3 dimensional rectangular lattices, mean field
clusters and platonic solids. We determine the Entanglement of Formation (EoF)
as a function of the interaction strength, calculate the maximum EoF in each
case and compare these values with the bounds found in \cite{wolf} which are
valid for any quadratic hamiltonian.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, Latex, Accepted for publication in
Physical Review
Exciton spin-flip rate in quantum dots determined by a modified local density of optical states
The spin-flip rate that couples dark and bright excitons in self-assembled
quantum dots is obtained from time-resolved spontaneous emission measurements
in a modified local density of optical states. Employing this technique, we can
separate effects due to non-radiative recombination and unambiguously record
the spin-flip rate. The dependence of the spin-flip rate on emission energy is
compared in detail to a recent model from the literature, where the spin flip
is due to the combined action of short-range exchange interaction and acoustic
phonons. We furthermore observe a surprising enhancement of the spin-flip rate
close to a semiconductor-air interface, which illustrates the important role of
interfaces for quantum dot based nanophotonic structures. Our work is an
important step towards a full understanding of the complex dynamics of quantum
dots in nanophotonic structures, such as photonic crystals, and dark excitons
are potentially useful for long-lived coherent storage applications.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Quantum teleportation between light and matter
Quantum teleportation is an important ingredient in distributed quantum
networks, and can also serve as an elementary operation in quantum computers.
Teleportation was first demonstrated as a transfer of a quantum state of light
onto another light beam; later developments used optical relays and
demonstrated entanglement swapping for continuous variables. The teleportation
of a quantum state between two single material particles (trapped ions) has now
also been achieved. Here we demonstrate teleportation between objects of a
different nature - light and matter, which respectively represent 'flying' and
'stationary' media. A quantum state encoded in a light pulse is teleported onto
a macroscopic object (an atomic ensemble containing 10^12 caesium atoms).
Deterministic teleportation is achieved for sets of coherent states with mean
photon number (n) up to a few hundred. The fidelities are 0.58+-0.02 for n=20
and 0.60+-0.02 for n=5 - higher than any classical state transfer can possibly
achieve. Besides being of fundamental interest, teleportation using a
macroscopic atomic ensemble is relevant for the practical implementation of a
quantum repeater. An important factor for the implementation of quantum
networks is the teleportation distance between transmitter and receiver; this
is 0.5 metres in the present experiment. As our experiment uses propagating
light to achieve the entanglement of light and atoms required for
teleportation, the present approach should be scalable to longer distances.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, incl. supplementary informatio
Decay dynamics of quantum dots influenced by the local density of optical states of two-dimensional photonic crystal membranes
We have performed time-resolved spectroscopy on InAs quantum dot ensembles in
photonic crystal membranes. The influence of the photonic crystal is
investigated by varying the lattice constant systematically. We observe a
strong slow down of the quantum dots' spontaneous emission rates as the
two-dimensional bandgap is tuned through their emission frequencies. The
measured band edges are in full agreement with theoretical predictions. We
characterize the multi-exponential decay curves by their mean decay time and
find enhancement of the spontaneous emission at the bandgap edges and strong
inhibition inside the bandgap in good agreement with local density of states
calculations.Comment: 9 pages (preprint), 3 figure
Sequential Generation of Matrix-Product States in Cavity QED
We study the sequential generation of entangled photonic and atomic
multi-qubit states in the realm of cavity QED. We extend the work of C. Schoen
et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 110503 (2005)], where it was shown that all states
generated in a sequential manner can be classified efficiently in terms of
matrix-product states. In particular, we consider two scenarios: photonic
multi-qubit states sequentially generated at the cavity output of a
single-photon source and atomic multi-qubit states generated by their
sequential interaction with the same cavity mode.Comment: 11 page
Experimental demonstration of quantum memory for light
The information carrier of today's communications, a weak pulse of light, is
an intrinsically quantum object. As a consequence, complete information about
the pulse cannot, even in principle, be perfectly recorded in a classical
memory. In the field of quantum information this has led to a long standing
challenge: how to achieve a high-fidelity transfer of an independently prepared
quantum state of light onto the atomic quantum state? Here we propose and
experimentally demonstrate a protocol for such quantum memory based on atomic
ensembles. We demonstrate for the first time a recording of an externally
provided quantum state of light onto the atomic quantum memory with a fidelity
up to 70%, significantly higher than that for the classical recording. Quantum
storage of light is achieved in three steps: an interaction of light with
atoms, the subsequent measurement on the transmitted light, and the feedback
onto the atoms conditioned on the measurement result. Density of recorded
states 33% higher than that for the best classical recording of light on atoms
is achieved. A quantum memory lifetime of up to 4 msec is demonstrated.Comment: 22 pages (double line spacing) incl. supplementary information, 4
figures, accepted for publication in Natur
Quantum benchmark for storage and transmission of coherent states
We consider the storage and transmission of a Gaussian distributed set of
coherent states of continuous variable systems. We prove a limit on the average
fidelity achievable when the states are transmitted or stored by a classical
channel, i.e., a measure and repreparation scheme which sends or stores
classical information only. The obtained bound is tight and serves as a
benchmark which has to be surpassed by quantum channels in order to outperform
any classical strategy. The success in experimental demonstrations of quantum
memories as well as quantum teleportation has to be judged on this footing.Comment: 4 pages, references added, minor change
Characterizing the spin state of an atomic ensemble using the magneto-optical resonance method
Quantum information protocols utilizing atomic ensembles require preparation
of a coherent spin state (CSS) of the ensemble as an important starting point.
We investigate the magneto-optical resonance method for characterizing a spin
state of cesium atoms in a paraffin coated vapor cell. Atoms in a constant
magnetic field are subject to an off-resonant laser beam and an RF magnetic
field. The spectrum of the Zeeman sub-levels, in particular the weak quadratic
Zeeman effect, enables us to measure the spin orientation, the number of atoms,
and the transverse spin coherence time. Notably the use of 894nm pumping light
on the D1-line, ensuring the state F=4, m_F=4 to be a dark state, helps us to
achieve spin orientation of better than 98%. Hence we can establish a CSS with
high accuracy which is critical for the analysis of the entangled states of
atoms.Comment: 12 pages ReVTeX, 6 figures, in v2 added ref. and corrected typo
Differential atom interferometry beyond the standard quantum limit
We analyze methods to go beyond the standard quantum limit for a class of
atomic interferometers, where the quantity of interest is the difference of
phase shifts obtained by two independent atomic ensembles. An example is given
by an atomic Sagnac interferometer, where for two ensembles propagating in
opposite directions in the interferometer this phase difference encodes the
angular velocity of the experimental setup. We discuss methods of squeezing
separately or jointly observables of the two atomic ensembles, and compare in
detail advantages and drawbacks of such schemes. In particular we show that the
method of joint squeezing may improve the variance by up to a factor of 2. We
take into account fluctuations of the number of atoms in both the preparation
and the measurement stage, and obtain bounds on the difference of the numbers
of atoms in the two ensembles, as well as on the detection efficiency, which
have to be fulfilled in order to surpass the standard quantum limit. Under
realistic conditions, the performance of both schemes can be improved
significantly by reading out the phase difference via a quantum non-demolition
(QND) measurement. Finally, we discuss a scheme using macroscopically entangled
ensembles.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; eq. (3) corrected and other minor change
Towards an eficient atomic frequency comb quantum memory
We present an efficient photon-echo experiment based on atomic frequency
combs [Phys. Rev. A 79, 052329 (2009)]. Echoes containing an energy of up to
35% of that of the input pulse are observed in a Pr3+-doped Y2SiO5 crystal.
This material allows for the precise spectral holeburning needed to make a
sharp and highly absorbing comb structure. We compare our results with a simple
theoretical model with satisfactory agreement. Our results show that atomic
frequency combs has the potential for high-efficiency storage of single photons
as required in future long-distance communication based on quantum repeaters.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
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