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

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

doi:10.1038/s41566-022-00979-z

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

Stephen C. Wein (Corresponding author)
, 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 (Corresponding author)

Quantum Science

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	374–379
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nature Photonics
Volume	16
Issue number	5
Early online date	7 Apr 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00979-z
Publication status	Published - May 2022

Funding

P.S. acknowledges support from the ERC PoC PhoW, the IAD-ANR support ASTRID programme project (grant. no. ANR-18-ASTR-0024 LIGHT), the QuantERA ERA-NET Cofund in Quantum Technologies (project HIPHOP), the FET OPEN QLUSTER, and the French RENATECH network, a public grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the Investissements d'Avenir programme (Labex NanoSaclay, grant no. ANR-10-LABX-0035). J.C.L. acknowledges the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs, the National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development, and the Christian Doppler Research Association. A.A., M.M. and S.C.W acknowledge support from the Foundational Questions Institute Fund (grant no. FQXi-IAF19-01 to A.A and S.C.W, and FQXi-IAF19-05 to A.A. and M.M.), as well as the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skodowska-Curie (grant agreement no. 861097 to A.A., M.M. and S.C.W.). A.A. and M.M also acknowledge support from the ANR Research Collaborative Project Qu-DICE (grant no. ANR-PRC-CES47 to A.A and M.M.), the Templeton World Charity Foundation Inc (grant no. TWCF0338 to A.A. and M.M.) and the John Templeton Foundation (grant no. 61835 to A.A.). C.S. acknowledges support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant and Strategic Project Grant programs, as well as the National Research Council's High-Throughput Secure Networks program. S.C.W. also acknowledges support from the NSERC Canadian Graduate Scholarships (grant nos 668347 and 677972) and the SPIE Education Scholarship program. S.C.W. and C.A.-S. acknowledge A. Gonzalez-Tudela, C. Sanchez-Munoz, T. Huber and N. Sinclair for fruitful discussions. C.A.-S. thanks K. Bencheikh and F. Raineri for providing technical assistance in the experimental set-up.

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103026 Quantum optics

Keywords

SINGLE-PHOTON
QUANTUM-NETWORK
STATE
NODES

Access to Document

10.1038/s41566-022-00979-z

https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.02049Licence: Other

Cite this

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title = "Photon-number entanglement generated by sequential excitation of a two-level atom",

abstract = "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.",

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AU - Wein, Stephen C.

AU - Loredo, Juan C.

AU - Maffei, Maria

AU - Hilaire, Paul

AU - Harouri, Abdelmounaim

AU - Somaschi, Niccolo

AU - Lemaitre, Aristide

AU - Sagnes, Isabelle

AU - Lanco, Loic

AU - Krebs, Olivier

AU - Auffeves, Alexia

AU - Simon, Christoph

AU - Senellart, Pascale

AU - Anton-Solanas, Carlos

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N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

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KW - QUANTUM-NETWORK

KW - STATE

KW - NODES

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

Abstract

Funding

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

HiPhoP: High dimensional quantum Photonic Platform

Cite this

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

Abstract

Funding

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

HiPhoP: High dimensional quantum Photonic Platform

Cite this