232 research outputs found
Experimental Bell Inequality Violation with an Atom and a Photon
We report the measurement of a Bell inequality violation with a single atom
and a single photon prepared in a probabilistic entangled state. This is the
first demonstration of such a violation with particles of different species.
The entanglement characterization of this hybrid system may also be useful in
quantum information applications.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Broadband laser cooling of trapped atoms with ultrafast pulses
We demonstrate broadband laser cooling of atomic ions in an rf trap using
ultrafast pulses from a modelocked laser. The temperature of a single ion is
measured by observing the size of a time-averaged image of the ion in the known
harmonic trap potential. While the lowest observed temperature was only about 1
K, this method efficiently cools very hot atoms and can sufficiently localize
trapped atoms to produce near diffraction-limited atomic images
Photon-Photon Entanglement with a Single Trapped Atom
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.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Fast Excitation and Photon Emission of a Single-Atom-Cavity System
We report on the fast excitation of a single atom coupled to an optical
cavity using laser pulses that are much shorter than all other relevant
processes. The cavity frequency constitutes a control parameter that allows the
creation of single photons in a superposition of two tunable frequencies. Each
photon emitted from the cavity thus exhibits a pronounced amplitude modulation
determined by the oscillatory energy exchange between the atom and the cavity.
Our technique constitutes a versatile tool for future quantum networking
experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Entanglement Sudden Death in Band Gaps
Using the pseudomode method, we evaluate exactly time-dependent entanglement
for two independent qubits, each coupled to a non-Markovian structured
environment. Our results suggest a possible way to control entanglement sudden
death by modifying the qubit-pseudomode detuning and the spectrum of the
reservoirs. Particularly, in environments structured by a model of a
density-of-states gap which has two poles, entanglement trapping and prevention
of entanglement sudden death occur in the weak-coupling regime
Shaping the Phase of a Single Photon
While the phase of a coherent light field can be precisely known, the phase
of the individual photons that create this field, considered individually,
cannot. Phase changes within single-photon wave packets, however, have
observable effects. In fact, actively controlling the phase of individual
photons has been identified as a powerful resource for quantum communication
protocols. Here we demonstrate the arbitrary phase control of a single photon.
The phase modulation is applied without affecting the photon's amplitude
profile and is verified via a two-photon quantum interference measurement,
which can result in the fermionic spatial behaviour of photon pairs. Combined
with previously demonstrated control of a single photon's amplitude, frequency,
and polarisation, the fully deterministic phase shaping presented here allows
for the complete control of single-photon wave packets.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Efficient Photoionization-Loading of Trapped Cadmium Ions with Ultrafast Pulses
Atomic cadmium ions are loaded into radiofrequency ion traps by
photoionization of atoms in a cadmium vapor with ultrafast laser pulses. The
photoionization is driven through an intermediate atomic resonance with a
frequency-quadrupled mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser that produces pulses of
either 100 fsec or 1 psec duration at a central wavelength of 229 nm. The large
bandwidth of the pulses photoionizes all velocity classes of the Cd vapor,
resulting in high loading efficiencies compared to previous ion trap loading
techniques. Measured loading rates are compared with a simple theoretical
model, and we conclude that this technique can potentially ionize every atom
traversing the laser beam within the trapping volume. This may allow the
operation of ion traps with lower levels of background pressures and less trap
electrode surface contamination. The technique and laser system reported here
should be applicable to loading most laser-cooled ion species.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure
Experimental demonstration of a BDCZ quantum repeater node
Quantum communication is a method that offers efficient and secure ways for
the exchange of information in a network. Large-scale quantum communication (of
the order of 100 km) has been achieved; however, serious problems occur beyond
this distance scale, mainly due to inevitable photon loss in the transmission
channel. Quantum communication eventually fails when the probability of a dark
count in the photon detectors becomes comparable to the probability that a
photon is correctly detected. To overcome this problem, Briegel, D\"{u}r, Cirac
and Zoller (BDCZ) introduced the concept of quantum repeaters, combining
entanglement swapping and quantum memory to efficiently extend the achievable
distances. Although entanglement swapping has been experimentally demonstrated,
the implementation of BDCZ quantum repeaters has proved challenging owing to
the difficulty of integrating a quantum memory. Here we realize entanglement
swapping with storage and retrieval of light, a building block of the BDCZ
quantum repeater. We follow a scheme that incorporates the strategy of BDCZ
with atomic quantum memories. Two atomic ensembles, each originally entangled
with a single emitted photon, are projected into an entangled state by
performing a joint Bell state measurement on the two single photons after they
have passed through a 300-m fibre-based communication channel. The entanglement
is stored in the atomic ensembles and later verified by converting the atomic
excitations into photons. Our method is intrinsically phase insensitive and
establishes the essential element needed to realize quantum repeaters with
stationary atomic qubits as quantum memories and flying photonic qubits as
quantum messengers.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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