Entanglement of a Photon and a Collective Atomic Excitation
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
95
Journal Issue
4
Start Page
040405
ISSN
0031-9007
1079-7114
Date Issued
2005-07-22
Author(s)
Abstract
We describe a new experimental approach to probabilistic atom-photon (signal) entanglement. Two qubit states are encoded as orthogonal collective spin excitations of an unpolarized atomic ensemble. After a programmable delay, the atomic excitation is converted into a photon (idler). Polarization states of both the signal and the idler are recorded and are found to be in violation of the Bell inequality. Atomic coherence times exceeding several microseconds are achieved by switching off all the trapping fields-including the quadrupole magnetic field of the magneto-optical trap-and zeroing out the residual ambient magnetic field.
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Type
journal article