Quantum cloning in coupled states of optical field and atomic ensemble by quasi-condensation of polaritons

Combining techniques of cavity quantum electrodynamics, quantum measurement, and quantum feedback, we have realized the heralded transfer of a polarization qubit from a photon onto a single atom with 39% efficiency and 86% fidelity. The reverse process, namely, qubit transfer from the atom onto a given photon, is demonstrated with 88% fidelity and an estimated efficiency of up to 69%. In contrast to previous work based on two-photon interference, our scheme is robust against ...

We consider a new approach to the problem of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of polaritons for atom-field interaction under the strong coupling regime in the cavity. We investigate the dynamics of two macroscopically populated polariton modes corresponding to the upper and lower branch energy states coupled via Kerr-like nonlinearity of atomic medium. We found out the dispersion relations for new type of collective excitations in the system under consideration. Various tempo...

Prospects for reaching persistent entanglement between two spatially separated atomic Bose-Einstein condensates are outlined. The system set-up comprises of two condensates loaded in an optical lattice, which, in return, is confined within a high-Q optical resonator. The system is driven by an external laser that illuminates the atoms such that photons can scatter into the cavity. In the superradiant phase a cavity field is established and we show that the emerging cavity med...

We show that a system of polaritons - combined atom and photon excitations - in an array of coupled cavities, under an experimental set-up usually considered in electromagnetically induced transparency, is described by the Bose-Hubbard model. This opens up the possibility of using this system as a quantum simulator, allowing for the observation of quantum phase transitions and for the measurement of local properties, such as single site observables. All the basic building blo...

We show that it is possible to ``store'' quantum states of single-photon fields by mapping them onto {\it collective} meta-stable states of an optically dense, coherently driven medium inside an optical resonator. An adiabatic technique is suggested which allows to transfer non-classical correlations from traveling-wave single-photon wave-packets into atomic states and vise versa with nearly 100% efficiency. In contrast to previous approaches involving single atoms, the prese...

We propose a quantum memory protocol based on dynamically changing the resonance frequency of an ensemble of two-level atoms. By sweeping the atomic frequency in an adiabatic fashion, photons are reversibly transferred into atomic coherences. We present a polaritonic description for this type of storage, which shares some similarities with Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) based quantum memories. On the other hand the proposed memory is also linked to the Gradien...

The faithful storage of a quantum bit of light is essential for long-distance quantum communication, quantum networking and distributed quantum computing. The required optical quantum memory must, first, be able to receive and recreate the photonic qubit and, second, store an unknown quantum state of light better than any classical device. These two requirements have so far been met only by ensembles of material particles storing the information in collective excitations. Rec...

We theoretically and experimentally investigate quantum features of an interacting light-matter system from a multidisciplinary perspective, unifying approaches from semiconductor physics, quantum optics, and quantum information science. To this end, we quantify the amount of quantum coherence that results from the quantum superposition of Fock states, constituting a measure of the resourcefulness of the produced state for modern quantum protocols. As an archetypal example of...

We examine quantum statistics of optical photons emitted from atomic ensembles which are classically driven and simultaneously coupled to a two-level atom via microwave photon exchange. Quantum statistics and correlations are analyzed by calculating second order coherence degree, von Neumann entropy, spin squeezing for multi-particle entanglement, as well as genuine two and three-mode entanglement parameters for steady state and non-equilibrium situations. Coherent transfer o...

We use a microwave field to control the quantum state of optical photons stored in a cold atomic cloud. The photons are stored in highly excited collective states (Rydberg polaritons) enabling both fast qubit rotations and control of photon-photon interactions. Through the collective read-out of these pseudo-spin rotations it is shown that the microwave field modifies the long-range interactions between polaritons. This technique provides a powerful interface between the micr...