Entanglement generation in weakly-driven arrays of multilevel atoms via dipolar interactions

TL;DR

This paper studies how weakly driven arrays of multilevel atoms can generate strong entanglement through dipolar interactions, with potential experimental realization using strontium atoms for exploring many-body quantum phenomena.

Contribution

It demonstrates that multilevel atoms can become strongly entangled in driven-dissipative regimes, unlike two-level systems, and proposes a specific experimental platform for validation.

Findings

Multilevel atoms exhibit strong entanglement in driven-dissipative regimes.

Entanglement persists after the drive is turned off.

Proposes strontium atom transitions as an experimental platform.

Abstract

We investigate the driven-dissipative dynamics of 1D and 2D arrays of multilevel atoms interacting via dipole-dipole interactions and trapped at subwavelength scales. Here we show that in the weakly driven low excitation regime, multilevel atoms, in contrast to two-level atoms, can become strongly entangled. The entanglement manifests as the growth of collective spin-waves in the ground state manifold, and survives even after turning off the drive. We propose to use the $\sim 2.9~\mu$m transition between $\rm ^3{\rm P}_2 \leftrightarrow \, ^3{\rm D}_3$ in $\rm ^{88}Sr$ with $\rm 389~nm$ trapping light as an ideal experimental platform for validating our predictions and as a novel quantum interface for the exploration of complex many-body phenomena emerging from light-matter interactions.