Single-photon atomic cooling

We report the cooling of an atomic ensemble with light, where each atom scatters only a single photon on average. This is a general method that does not require a cycling transition and can be applied to atoms or molecules that are magnetically trapped. We discuss the application of this new approach to the cooling of hydrogenic atoms for the purpose of precision spectroscopy and fundamental tests.     

Single-photon atomic cooling

We propose a new method of cooling and phase space compression that requires each atom to scatter only one photon. We consider the specific example of rubidium-87 atoms confined to a magnetic trap and provide realistic estimates. Beyond a demonstration in atomic rubidium, this method could enable cooling of atoms and molecules that do not have cycling transitions.     

原子系综中光学腔增强的Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller写过程激发实验

原子系综中的Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller(DLCZ)过程是产生光与原子(量子界面)量子关联和纠缠的重要手段.当一束写光与原子发生作用时,将会产生斯托克斯(Stokes)光子的自发拉曼散射,并同时产生一个自旋波(spin-wave)存储在原子系综中,上述过程即为DLCZ量子记忆产生过程.这一过程被广泛地...     

Efficient generation of non-classical photon pairs in a hot atomic ensemble

We demonstrate the generation of non-classical photon pairs in a warm ~(87)Rb atomic vapor cell with no buffer gas or polarization preserving coatings via spontaneous four-wave mixing. We obtain the photon pairs with a 1/e correlation time of 40 ns and the violation of Cauchy–Schwartz inequality by a factor of 23±3. This provides a convenient and efficient method to generate photon pair sources based on an atomic ensemble.     

Teleportation of an atomic ensemble quantum state

We propose a protocol to achieve high fidelity quantum state teleportation of a macroscopic atomic ensemble using a pair of quantum-correlated atomic ensembles. We show how to prepare this pair of ensembles using quasiperfect quantum state transfer processes between light and atoms. Our protocol relies on optical joint measurements of the atomic ensemble states and magnetic feedback reconstruction.     

Optomechanical cavity cooling of an atomic ensemble

We demonstrate cavity sideband cooling of a single collective motional mode of an atomic ensemble down to a mean phonon occupation number ?n?(min?)=2.0(-0.3)(+0.9). Both ?n?(min) and the observed cooling rate are in good agreement with an optomechanical model. The cooling rate constant is proportional to the total photon scattering rate by the ensemble, demonstrating the cooperative character of the light-emission-induced cooling process. We deduce fundamental limits to cavity cooling either the collective mode or, sympathetically, the single-atom degrees of freedom.     

Collective excitation and photon entanglement in double-$\sf \Lambda $ atomic ensemble

We investigate a double-Λ atomic ensemble trapped in a cavity and deduce the five species of polaritons. By analysing the analytic expression, we show the exchange of the two mode fields as well as frequency conversion. By studying the entanglement between the two mode fields, we exhibit the role of the five species of polaritons in entanglement creation. We also show the influence of the field and atomic decay on entanglement.     

Frequency-filtered parametric fluorescence interacting with an atomic ensemble

The frequency spectrum of the fluorescence must be reduced when studying interactions between atoms and parametric fluorescence using the photon counting method since photon counting does not distinguish the light frequency. An interference filter and etalons successfully reduced the frequency spectrum of the parametric fluorescence from 6.6 THz to 1.7 GHz. The parametric fluorescence after frequency filtering showed the non-classical feature violating a Cauchy-Schwartz inequality for the intensity correlation function. We used slow light propagation with Rb gas to demonstrate that the obtained light source interacts with the atoms.     

Direct measurement of decoherence for entanglement between a photon and stored atomic excitation

Violations of a Bell inequality are reported for an experiment where one of two entangled qubits is stored in a collective atomic memory for a user-defined time delay. The atomic qubit is found to preserve the violation of a Bell inequality for storage times up to 21 micros, 700 times longer than the duration of the excitation pulse that creates the entanglement. To address the question of the security of entanglement-based cryptography implemented with this system, an investigation of the Bell violation as a function of the cross correlation between the generated nonclassical fields is reported, with saturation of the violation close to the maximum value allowed by quantum mechanics.     

Generating a superposition of spin states in an atomic ensemble

A method for generating a mesoscopic superposition state of the collective spin variable of a gas of atoms is proposed. The state consists of a superposition of the atomic spins pointing in two slightly different directions. It is obtained by using off resonant light to carry out quantum nondemolition measurements of the spins. The relevant experimental conditions, which require very dense atomic samples, can be realized with presently available techniques. Long-lived atomic superposition states may become useful as an off-line resource for quantum computing with otherwise linear operations.     

Stokes identification in an atomic ensemble using a filtering system

Polarization filtering and atomic cell filtering are applied in the identification of Stokes signals in an atomic ensemble, and reduce the noise to a level of 10^ - 5 and 10^ - 4 respectively. Good Stokes signals are then obtained. In this article the two filtering systems and the final Stokes output are presented, and the optimization of the polarization filtering system is highlighted.     

Superradiant cascade emissions in an atomic ensemble via four-wave mixing

We investigate superradiant cascade emissions from an atomic ensemble driven by two-color classical fields. The correlated pair of photons (signal and idler) is generated by adiabatically driving the system with large-detuned light fields via four-wave mixing. The signal photon from the upper transition of the diamond-type atomic levels is followed by the idler one which can be superradiant due to light-induced dipole–dipole interactions. We then calculate the cooperative Lamb shift (CLS) of the idler photon, which is a cumulative effect of interaction energy. We study its dependence on a cylindrical geometry, a conventional setup in cold atom experiments, and estimate the maximum CLS which can be significant and observable. Manipulating the CLS of cascade emissions enables frequency qubits that provide alternative robust elements in quantum network.     

Image transfer through coherent population trapping based on an atomic ensemble

We report on an experiment on transferring an image through coherent population trapping(CPT) effect in a hot rubidium vapor. We demonstrate experimentally that an image can be transferred from a control light to a probe light.Moreover, we describe the demonstration that the image can be transferred from a control light to two different probes showing a feasibility of transferring an image onto multiple probes. We believe that this effect definitely has important applications in image metrology, high dimensional information transfer in quantum information field, etc.     

Single-photon generation by correlated loss in a three-core optical fiber

We demonstrate that by an asymmetric coupling of two nonlinear waveguiding cores to the third strongly absorptive core, it is possible to realize single-photon generation on demand from an input coherent state. This three-core fiber setup can also be implemented for achieving strong photon-number squeezing even for large losses in side cores.     

Generation of mesoscopic entangled states in a cavity coupled to an atomic ensemble

We propose a novel scheme for the efficient production of entangled states for N photons of the form |N>(a)|0>(b) + |0>(a)|N>(b) (NOON states) based on the resonant interaction of a pair of quantized cavity modes with an ensemble of atoms. We show that, in the strong-coupling regime, the adiabatic evolution of the system tends to a limiting state that describes mesoscopic entanglement between photons and atoms which can easily be converted to a purely photonic or atomic NOON state. We also demonstrate the remarkable property that the efficiency of this scheme increases exponentially with the cavity cooperativity factor, which gives efficient access to high number NOON states. The experimental feasibility of the scheme is discussed, and its efficiency is demonstrated numerically.     

Difference-frequency ultrasound generation from microbubbles under dual-frequency excitation

The difference-frequency (DF) ultrasound generated by using parametric effect promises to improve detection depth owing to its low attenuation, which is beneficial for deep tissue imaging. With ultrasound contrast agents infusion, the harmonic components scattered from the microbubbles, including DF, can be generated due to the nonlinear vibration. A theoretical study on the DF generation from microbubbles under the dual-frequency excitation is proposed in formula based on the solution of the RPNNP equation. The optimisation of the DF generation is discussed associated with the applied acoustic pressure, frequency, and the microbubble size. Experiments are performed to validate the theoretical predictions by using a dual-frequency signal to excite microbubbles. Both the numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the optimised DF ultrasound can be achieved as the difference frequency is close to the resonance frequency of the microbubble and improve the contrast-to-tissue ratio in imaging.     

Pulse pair generation from coherently prepared atomic ensembles

We report a detailed investigation on the generation of pulse pairs during the readout of a coherence grating stored in a cold atomic ensemble. The pulse shapes and the split of the retrieved energy between the two pulses are studied as a function of the relative intensities of the two reading fields, and a minimum is observed for the total retrieved energy. We introduce a simplified analytical theory for the process, considering a three-level atomic system, which explains all the most striking experimental features.     

Optimum excitation conditions for the generation of high-electric-field terahertz radiation from an oscillator-driven photoconductive device

We report the impulsive generation of terahertz (THz) radiation with a field amplitude of more than 1.5 kV/cm at megahertz repetition rates, using an interdigitated photoconducting device. The approach provides an average THz power of 190 microW, corresponding to an optical-to-THz conversion efficiency of 2.5 x 10(-4). Optimum conditions are achieved when the excitation spot size is of the order of the THz wavelength.