IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_s41467-017-00897-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Entanglement between more than two hundred macroscopic atomic ensembles in a solid

Author

Listed:
  • P. Zarkeshian

    (University of Calgary)

  • C. Deshmukh

    (University of Calgary)

  • N. Sinclair

    (University of Calgary)

  • S. K. Goyal

    (University of Calgary)

  • G. H. Aguilar

    (University of Calgary)

  • P. Lefebvre

    (University of Calgary)

  • M. Grimau Puigibert

    (University of Calgary)

  • V. B. Verma

    (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  • F. Marsili

    (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology)

  • M. D. Shaw

    (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology)

  • S. W. Nam

    (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  • K. Heshami

    (National Research Council of Canada)

  • D. Oblak

    (University of Calgary)

  • W. Tittel

    (University of Calgary)

  • C. Simon

    (University of Calgary)

Abstract

There are both fundamental and practical motivations for studying whether quantum entanglement can exist in macroscopic systems. However, multiparty entanglement is generally fragile and difficult to quantify. Dicke states are multiparty entangled states where a single excitation is delocalized over many systems. Building on previous work on quantum memories for photons, we create a Dicke state in a solid by storing a single photon in a crystal that contains many large atomic ensembles with distinct resonance frequencies. The photon is re-emitted at a well-defined time due to an interference effect analogous to multi-slit diffraction. We derive a lower bound for the number of entangled ensembles based on the contrast of the interference and the single-photon character of the input, and we experimentally demonstrate entanglement between over two hundred ensembles, each containing a billion atoms. We also illustrate the fact that each individual ensemble contains further entanglement.

Suggested Citation

  • P. Zarkeshian & C. Deshmukh & N. Sinclair & S. K. Goyal & G. H. Aguilar & P. Lefebvre & M. Grimau Puigibert & V. B. Verma & F. Marsili & M. D. Shaw & S. W. Nam & K. Heshami & D. Oblak & W. Tittel & C., 2017. "Entanglement between more than two hundred macroscopic atomic ensembles in a solid," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-00897-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00897-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00897-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-017-00897-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-00897-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.