Carving complex many-atom entangled states by single-photon detection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to generate complex entangled states of many atoms by detecting a single photon, using atom-light interactions in a cavity, enabling high-fidelity state preparation with existing technology.

Contribution

The authors present a novel, efficient approach to produce complex many-atom entangled states through single-photon detection, expanding capabilities in quantum state engineering.

Findings

Enables generation of multicomponent Schrödinger cat states.

High success probability with existing cavity QED technology.

Produces high-fidelity entangled states through simple photon detection.

Abstract

We propose a versatile and efficient method to generate a broad class of complex entangled states of many atoms via the detection of a single photon. For an atomic ensemble contained in a strongly coupled optical cavity illuminated by weak single- or multi-frequency light, the atom-light interaction entangles the frequency spectrum of a transmitted photon with the collective spin of the atomic ensemble. Simple time-resolved detection of the transmitted photon then projects the atomic ensemble into a desired pure entangled state. This method can be implemented with existing technology, yields high success probability per trials, and can generate complex entangled states such as multicomponent Schr\"{o}dinger cat states with high fidelity.