228 research outputs found
Atomic entanglement near a realistic microsphere
We study a scheme for entangling two-level atoms located close to the surface
of a dielectric microsphere. The effect is based on medium-assisted spontaneous
decay, rigorously taking into account dispersive and absorptive properties of
the microsphere. We show that even in the weak-coupling regime, where the
Markov approximation applies, entanglement up to 0.35 ebits between two atoms
can be created. However, larger entanglement and violation of Bell's inequality
can only be achieved in the strong-coupling regime.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, Late
Resonant Energy Exchange between Atoms in Dispersing and Absorbing Surroundings
Within the framework of quantization of the macroscopic electromagnetic
field, a master equation describing both the resonant dipole-dipole interaction
(RDDI) and the resonant atom-field interaction (RAFI) in the presence of
dispersing and absorbing macroscopic bodies is derived, with the relevant
couplings being expressed in terms of the surroundings-assisted Green tensor.
It is shown that under certain conditions the RDDI can be regarded as being
governed by an effective Hamiltonian. The theory, which applies to both weak
and strong atom-field coupling, is used to study the resonant energy exchange
between two (two-level) atoms sharing initially a single excitation. In
particular, it is shown that in the regime of weak atom-field coupling there is
a time window, where the energy transfer follows a transfer-rate law of the
type obtained by ordinary second-order perturbation theory. Finally, the
spectrum of the light emitted during the energy transfer is studied and the
line splittings are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figs, Proceedings of ICQO'2002, Raubichi, to appear in
Optics and Spectroscop
Entanglement degradation of a two-mode squeezed vacuum in absorbing and amplifying optical fibers
Applying the recently developed formalism of quantum-state transformation at
absorbing dielectric four-port devices [L.~Kn\"oll, S.~Scheel, E.~Schmidt,
D.-G.~Welsch, and A.V.~Chizhov, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 59}, 4716 (1999)], we
calculate the quantum state of the outgoing modes of a two-mode squeezed vacuum
transmitted through optical fibers of given extinction coefficients. Using the
Peres--Horodecki separability criterion for continuous variable systems
[R.~Simon, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 84}, 2726 (2000)], we compute the maximal
length of transmission of a two-mode squeezed vacuum through an absorbing
system for which the transmitted state is still inseparable. Further, we
calculate the maximal gain for which inseparability can be observed in an
amplifying setup. Finally, we estimate an upper bound of the entanglement
preserved after transmission through an absorbing system. The results show that
the characteristic length of entanglement degradation drastically decreases
with increasing strength of squeezing.Comment: Paper presented at the International Conference on Quantum Optics and
VIII Seminar on Quantum Optics, Raubichi, Belarus, May 28-31, 2000, 11 pages,
LaTeX2e, 4 eps figure
Green functions and propagation of waves in strongly inhomogeneous media
We show that Green functions of second-order differential operators with
singular or unbounded coefficients can have an anomalous behaviour in
comparison to the well-known properties of Green functions of operators with
bounded coefficients. We discuss some consequences of such an anomalous short
or long distance behaviour for a diffusion and wave propagation in an
inhomogeneous medium
Casimir-Polder forces: A non-perturbative approach
Within the frame of macroscopic QED in linear, causal media, we study the
radiation force of Casimir-Polder type acting on an atom which is positioned
near dispersing and absorbing magnetodielectric bodies and initially prepared
in an arbitrary electronic state. It is shown that minimal and multipolar
coupling lead to essentially the same lowest-order perturbative result for the
force acting on an atom in an energy eigenstate. To go beyond perturbation
theory, the calculations are based on the exact center-of-mass equation of
motion. For a nondriven atom in the weak-coupling regime, the force as a
function of time is a superposition of force components that are related to the
electronic density-matrix elements at a chosen time. Even the force component
associated with the ground state is not derivable from a potential in the
ususal way, because of the position dependence of the atomic polarizability.
Further, when the atom is initially prepared in a coherent superposition of
energy eigenstates, then temporally oscillating force components are observed,
which are due to the interaction of the atom with both electric and magnetic
fields.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, additional misprints correcte
Field quantization in inhomogeneous anisotropic dielectrics with spatio-temporal dispersion
A quantum damped-polariton model is constructed for an inhomogeneous
anisotropic linear dielectric with arbitrary dispersion in space and time. The
model Hamiltonian is completely diagonalized by determining the creation and
annihilation operators for the fundamental polariton modes as specific linear
combinations of the basic dynamical variables. Explicit expressions are derived
for the time-dependent operators describing the electromagnetic field, the
dielectric polarization and the noise term in the latter. It is shown how to
identify bath variables that generate the dissipative dynamics of the medium.Comment: 24 page
Quantum state conversion by cross-Kerr interaction
A generalized Mach-Zehnder-type interferometer equipped with cross-Kerr
elements is proposed to convert N-photon truncated single-mode quantum states
into (N+1)-mode single-photon states, which are suitable for further state
manipulation by means of beam splitter arrays and ON/OFF-detections, and vice
versa. Applications to the realization of unitary and non-unitary
transformations, quantum state reconstruction, and quantum telemanipulation are
studied.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, using a4.st
Atomic decay near a quantized medium of absorbing scatterers
The decay of an excited atom in the presence of a medium that both scatters
and absorbs radiation is studied with the help of a quantum-electrodynamical
model. The medium is represented by a half space filled with a randomly
distributed set of non-overlapping spheres, which consist of a linear
absorptive dielectric material. The absorption effects are described by means
of a quantized damped-polariton theory. It is found that the effective
susceptibility of the bulk does not fully account for the medium-induced change
in the atomic decay rate. In fact, surface effects contribute to the
modification of the decay properties as well. The interplay of scattering and
absorption in the total decay rate is discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur
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