# Entanglement detection via atomic deflection

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to detect and quantify entanglement between two optical cavity modes by analyzing atomic deflection patterns, revealing entanglement signatures through momentum distribution analysis.

## Contribution

It presents a novel entanglement detection criterion based on atomic deflection patterns in a cross-cavity setup, including quantification methods for different photon numbers.

## Key findings

- Entanglement can be detected via atomic momentum distributions.
- Single-photon entanglement is quantifiable through momentum rotation.
- Maximum entanglement causes specific momentum state suppression.

## Abstract

We report on criteria to detect entanglement between the light modes of two crossed optical cavities by analyzing the transverse deflection patterns of an atomic beam. The photon exchange between the modes and the atoms occurs around the overlapping nodes of associated standing waves, which generates the two-dimensional (2D) version of the Optical Stern-Gerlach (OSG) effect. In this optical cross-cavity setup, we show that the discrete signatures of the fields states, left in the momentum distribution of the deflected atoms, may reveal entanglement for a certain class of two-mode states. For a single photon, we present the possibility of quantifying entanglement by the rotation of the momentum distribution. For a larger number of photons, we demonstrate that quantum interference precludes the population of specific momentum states revealing maximum entanglement between the light modes.