Photon-number entanglement generated by sequential excitation of a two-level atom

Autor(en)

Stephen C. Wein, Juan C. Loredo, Maria Maffei, Paul Hilaire, Abdelmounaim Harouri, Niccolo Somaschi, Aristide Lemaitre, Isabelle Sagnes, Loic Lanco, Olivier Krebs, Alexia Auffeves, Christoph Simon, Pascale Senellart, Carlos Anton-Solanas

Abstrakt

Entanglement and spontaneous emission are fundamental quantum phenomena that drive many applications of quantum physics. During the spontaneous emission of light from an excited two-level atom, the atom briefly becomes entangled with the photonic field. Here we show that this natural process can be used to produce photon-number entangled states of light distributed in time. By exciting a quantum dot-an artificial two-level atom-with two sequential pi-pulses, we generate a photon-number Bell state. We characterize this state using time-resolved intensity and phase correlation measurements. Furthermore, we theoretically show that applying longer sequences of pulses to a two-level atom can produce a series of multi-temporal mode entangled states with properties intrinsically related to the Fibonacci sequence. Our results on photon-number entanglement can be further exploited to generate new states of quantum light with applications in quantum technologies.

Organisation(en)

Quantenoptik, Quantennanophysik und Quanteninformation

Externe Organisation(en)

University of Calgary, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University , Quandela, Université de Paris, Université Grenoble-Alpes, Institut NÉEL (CNRS), Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ), Université Paris Saclay, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

Journal

Nature Photonics

Band

16

Seiten

374–379

Anzahl der Seiten

6

ISSN

1749-4885

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00979-z

Publikationsdatum

04-2022

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103026 Quantenoptik

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/3fdbf044-745b-4831-b348-699e507b7632