Non-symmetric entanglement of atomic ensembles

The entanglement of multi-atom quantum states is considered. In order to cancel noise due to inhomogeneous light atom coupling, the concept of matched multi-atom observables is proposed. As a means to eliminate an important form of decoherence this idea should be of broad relevance for quantum information processing with atomic ensembles. The general approach is illustrated on the example of rotation angle measurement, and it is shown that the multi-atom states that were thought to be only weakly entangled can exhibit near-maximum entanglement.Comment: to appear in Physical Review Letter

Preparation of spin squeezed atomic states by optical phase shift measurement

In this paper we present a state vector analysis of the generation of atomic spin squeezing by measurement of an optical phase shift. The frequency resolution is improved when a spin squeezed sample is used for spectroscopy in place of an uncorrelated sample. When light is transmitted through an atomic sample some photons will be scattered out of the incident beam, and this has a destructive effect on the squeezing. We present quantitative studies for three limiting cases: the case of a sample of atoms of size smaller than the optical wavelength, the case of a large dilute sample and the case of a large dense sample.Comment: 18 page

Emergence of spatial spin-wave correlations in a cold atomic gas

Rydberg spin waves are optically excited in a quasi-one-dimensional atomic sample of Rb atoms. Pair-wise spin-wave correlations are observed by a spatially selective transfer of the quantum state onto a light field and photoelectric correlation measurements of the light. The correlations are interpreted in terms of the dephasing of multiply-excited spin waves by long-range Rydberg interactions

Atomic Quantum State Teleportation and Swapping

A set of protocols for atomic quantum state teleportation and swapping utilizing Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen light is proposed. The protocols are suitable for collective spin states of a macroscopic sample of atoms, i.e. for continuous atomic variables. Feasibility of experimental realization for teleportation of a gas sample of atoms is analyzed.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Atomic quantum memory: cavity vs single pass schemes

This paper presents a quantum mechanical treatment for both atomic and field fluctuations of an atomic ensemble interacting with propagating fields, either in Electromagnetically Induced Transparency or in a Raman situation. The atomic spin noise spectra and the outgoing field spectra are calculated in both situations. For suitable parameters both EIT and Raman schemes efficiently preserve the quantum state of the incident probe field in the transfer process with the atoms, although a single pass scheme is shown to be intrinsically less efficient than a cavity scheme

Entanglement of two atomic samples by quantum non-demolition measurements

This paper presents simulations of the state vector dynamics for a pair of atomic samples which are being probed by phase shift measurements on an optical beam passing through both samples. We show how measurements, which are sensitive to different atomic components, serve to prepare states which are close to being maximally entangled.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, REVTeX

Spin squeezing in optical lattice clocks via lattice-based QND measurements

Quantum projection noise will soon limit the best achievable precision of optical atomic clocks based on lattice-confined neutral atoms. Squeezing the collective atomic pseudo-spin via measurement of the clock state populations during Ramsey interrogation suppresses the projection noise. We show here that the lattice laser field can be used to perform ideal quantum non-demolition measurements without clock shifts or decoherence and explore the feasibility of such an approach in theory with the lattice field confined in a ring-resonator. Detection of the motional sideband due to the atomic vibration in the lattice wells can yield signal sizes a hundredfold above the projection noise limit.Comment: Substantially expanded versio

Multiplexed Memory-Insensitive Quantum Repeaters

Long-distance quantum communication via distant pairs of entangled quantum bits (qubits) is the first step towards more secure message transmission and distributed quantum computing. To date, the most promising proposals require quantum repeaters to mitigate the exponential decrease in communication rate due to optical fiber losses. However, these are exquisitely sensitive to the lifetimes of their memory elements. We propose a multiplexing of quantum nodes that should enable the construction of quantum networks that are largely insensitive to the coherence times of the quantum memory elements.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in PR

Three-dimensional theory for interaction between atomic ensembles and free-space light

Atomic ensembles have shown to be a promising candidate for implementations of quantum information processing by many recently-discovered schemes. All these schemes are based on the interaction between optical beams and atomic ensembles. For description of these interactions, one assumed either a cavity-QED model or a one-dimensional light propagation model, which is still inadequate for a full prediction and understanding of most of the current experimental efforts which are actually taken in the three-dimensional free space. Here, we propose a perturbative theory to describe the three-dimensional effects in interaction between atomic ensembles and free-space light with a level configuration important for several applications. The calculations reveal some significant effects which are not known before from the other approaches, such as the inherent mode-mismatching noise and the optimal mode-matching conditions. The three-dimensional theory confirms the collective enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio which is believed to be one of the main advantage of the ensemble-based quantum information processing schemes, however, it also shows that this enhancement need to be understood in a more subtle way with an appropriate mode matching method.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure