Photon-number entanglement generated by sequential excitation of a two-level atom
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...
| Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 2022 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid |
| Repository: | Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM |
| Language: | English |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/715726 |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10486/715726 https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00979-z |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Quantum phenomena Atom Photonic field Photon number Física |
| Summary: | 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 π-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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