Atom chip based generation of entanglement for quantum metrology

Atom chips provide a versatile `quantum laboratory on a microchip' for experiments with ultracold atomic gases. They have been used in experiments on diverse topics such as low-dimensional quantum gases, cavity quantum electrodynamics, atom-surface interactions, and chip-based atomic clocks and interferometers. A severe limitation of atom chips, however, is that techniques to control atomic interactions and to generate entanglement have not been experimentally available so far. Such techniques enable chip-based studies of entangled many-body systems and are a key prerequisite for atom chip applications in quantum simulations, quantum information processing, and quantum metrology. Here we report experiments where we generate multi-particle entanglement on an atom chip by controlling elastic collisional interactions with a state-dependent potential. We employ this technique to generate spin-squeezed states of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate and show that they are useful for quantum metrology. The observed 3.7 dB reduction in spin noise combined with the spin coherence imply four-partite entanglement between the condensate atoms and could be used to improve an interferometric measurement by 2.5 dB over the standard quantum limit. Our data show good agreement with a dynamical multi-mode simulation and allow us to reconstruct the Wigner function of the spin-squeezed condensate. The techniques demonstrated here could be directly applied in chip-based atomic clocks which are currently being set up

Inductively guided circuits for ultracold dressed atoms

Recent progress in optics, atomic physics and material science has paved the way to study quantum effects in ultracold atomic alkali gases confined to non-trivial geometries. Multiply connected traps for cold atoms can be prepared by combining inhomogeneous distributions of DC and radio-frequency electromagnetic fields with optical fields that require complex systems for frequency control and stabilization. Here we propose a flexible and robust scheme that creates closed quasi-one-dimensional guides for ultracold atoms through the ‘dressing’ of hyperfine sublevels of the atomic ground state, where the dressing field is spatially modulated by inductive effects over a micro-engineered conducting loop. Remarkably, for commonly used atomic species (for example, 7Li and 87Rb), the guide operation relies entirely on controlling static and low-frequency fields in the regimes of radio-frequency and microwave frequencies. This novel trapping scheme can be implemented with current technology for micro-fabrication and electronic control

Quantum computing implementations with neutral particles

We review quantum information processing with cold neutral particles, that is, atoms or polar molecules. First, we analyze the best suited degrees of freedom of these particles for storing quantum information, and then we discuss both single- and two-qubit gate implementations. We focus our discussion mainly on collisional quantum gates, which are best suited for atom-chip-like devices, as well as on gate proposals conceived for optical lattices. Additionally, we analyze schemes both for cold atoms confined in optical cavities and hybrid approaches to entanglement generation, and we show how optimal control theory might be a powerful tool to enhance the speed up of the gate operations as well as to achieve high fidelities required for fault tolerant quantum computation.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures; From the issue entitled "Special Issue on Neutral Particles

Coupling ultracold atoms to mechanical oscillators

In this article we discuss and compare different ways to engineer an interface between ultracold atoms and micro- and nanomechanical oscillators. We start by analyzing a direct mechanical coupling of a single atom or ion to a mechanical oscillator and show that the very different masses of the two systems place a limit on the achievable coupling constant in this scheme. We then discuss several promising strategies for enhancing the coupling: collective enhancement by using a large number of atoms in an optical lattice in free space, coupling schemes based on high-finesse optical cavities, and coupling to atomic internal states. Throughout the manuscript we discuss both theoretical proposals and first experimental implementations.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figure

High-speed linear optics quantum computing using active feed-forward

As information carriers in quantum computing, photonic qubits have the advantage of undergoing negligible decoherence. However, the absence of any significant photon-photon interaction is problematic for the realization of non-trivial two-qubit gates. One solution is to introduce an effective nonlinearity by measurements resulting in probabilistic gate operations. In one-way quantum computation, the random quantum measurement error can be overcome by applying a feed-forward technique, such that the future measurement basis depends on earlier measurement results. This technique is crucial for achieving deterministic quantum computation once a cluster state (the highly entangled multiparticle state on which one-way quantum computation is based) is prepared. Here we realize a concatenated scheme of measurement and active feed-forward in a one-way quantum computing experiment. We demonstrate that, for a perfect cluster state and no photon loss, our quantum computation scheme would operate with good fidelity and that our feed-forward components function with very high speed and low error for detected photons. With present technology, the individual computational step (in our case the individual feed-forward cycle) can be operated in less than 150 ns using electro-optical modulators. This is an important result for the future development of one-way quantum computers, whose large-scale implementation will depend on advances in the production and detection of the required highly entangled cluster states.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Speeding up the spatial adiabatic passage of matter waves in optical microtraps by optimal control

We numerically investigate the performance of atomic transport in optical microtraps via the so called spatial adiabatic passage technique. Our analysis is carried out by means of optimal control methods, which enable us to determine suitable transport control pulses. We investigate the ultimate limits of the optimal control in speeding up the transport process in a triple well configuration for both a single atomic wave packet and a Bose-Einstein condensate within a regime of experimental parameters achievable with current optical technology.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figure