Atomic spin squeezing in an optical cavity

We consider squeezing of one component of the collective spin vector of an atomic ensemble inside an optical cavity. The atoms interact with a cavity mode, and the squeezing is obtained by probing the state of the light field that is transmitted through the cavity. Starting from the stochastic master equation, we derive the time evolution of the state of the atoms and the cavity field, and we compute expectation values and variances of the atomic spin components and the quadratures of the cavity mode. The performance of the setup is compared to spin squeezing of atoms by probing of a light field transmitted only once through the sample.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Deterministic multi-mode photonic device for quantum information processing

We propose the implementation of a light source, which can deterministically generate a rich variety of multi-mode quantum states. The desired states are encoded in the collective population of different ground hyperfine states of an atomic ensemble and converted to multi-mode photonic states by excitation to optically excited levels followed by cooperative spontaneous emission. Among our examples of applications, we demonstrate how two-photon entangled states can be prepared and implemented in a protocol for reference frame free quantum key distribution and how one-dimensional as well as higher-dimensional cluster states can be produced.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Model wavefunctions for interfaces between lattice Laughlin states

We study the interfaces between lattice Laughlin states at different fillings. We propose a class of model wavefunctions for such systems constructed using conformal field theory. We find a nontrivial form of charge conservation at the interface, similar to the one encountered in the field theory works from the literature. Using Monte Carlo methods, we evaluate the correlation function and entanglement entropy at the border. Furthermore, we construct the wavefunction for quasihole excitations and evaluate their mutual statistics with respect to quasiholes originating at the same or the other side of the interface. We show that some of these excitations lose their anyonic statistics when crossing the interface, which can be interpreted as impermeability of the interface to these anyons. Contrary to most of the previous works on interfaces between topological orders, our approach is microscopic, allowing for a direct simulation of e.g. an anyon crossing the interface. Even though we determine the properties of the wavefunction numerically, the closed-form expressions allow us to study systems too large to be simulated by exact diagonalization.Comment: A number of changes were made in response to referees' comments: large parts of the text were rewritten, new results were added, some of the old results were reinterpreted, the discussion of connection to earlier works was expande

Chain and ladder models with two-body interactions and analytical ground states

We consider a family of spin-1/2 models with few-body, SU(2) invariant Hamiltonians and analytical ground states related to the 1D Haldane-Shastry wavefunction. The spins are placed on the surface of a cylinder, and the standard 1D Haldane-Shastry model is obtained by placing the spins with equal spacing in a circle around the cylinder. Here, we show that another interesting family of models with two-body exchange interactions is obtained if we instead place the spins along one or two lines parallel to the cylinder axis, giving rise to chain and ladder models, respectively. We can change the scale along the cylinder axis without changing the radius of the cylinder. This gives us a parameter that controls the ratio between the circumference of the cylinder and all other length scales in the system. We use Monte Carlo simulations and analytical investigations to study how this ratio affects the properties of the models. If the ratio is large, we find that the two legs of the ladder decouple into two chains that are in a critical phase with Haldane-Shastry-like properties. If the ratio is small, the wavefunction reduces to a product of singlets. In between, we find that the behavior of the correlations and the Renyi entropy depends on the distance considered. For small distances the behavior is critical, and for long distances the correlations decay exponentially and the entropy shows an area law behavior. The distance up to which there is critical behavior gets larger and larger as the ratio increases.Comment: 19 pages, 16 figure

Multimode analysis of the light emitted from a pulsed optical parametric oscillator

We present a multimode treatment of the optical parametric oscillator, which is valid for both pulsed and continuous-wave pump fields. The two-time correlation functions of the output field are derived, and we apply the theory to analyze a scheme for heralded production of non-classical field states that may be subsequently stored in an atomic quantum memory.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure