Entanglement generation in atom-cavity networks with complete connectivity

In this paper, we consider the situation that four identical two-level atoms are separately trapped in separated tetrahedral structure single-mode optical cavities, which are placed at the vertices of a tetrahedron and are coupled by four fibres. Each atom resonantly interacts with cavity via a one-photon hopping. The evolution of the state vector of the system is given by solving the Schrödinger equation when the total excitation number of the system equals one. Negativity is adopted to quantify the degree of entanglement between two subsystems. The entanglement dynamics between atoms and between cavities is studied. The influences of atom-cavity coupling coefficient on the entanglement between atoms and that between cavities are discussed. The results obtained using the numerical method show that the atom–atom entanglement and the cavity–cavity entanglement are all strengthened with increase of atom-cavity coupling coefficient.     

Spontaneously induced atom–radiation entanglement in an ensemble of trapped two-level atoms

Analysis of the effects of the spontaneously induced correlation on atom–radiation entanglement in an ensemble of two-level atoms initially prepared in the upper energy level and then trapped in a cavity containing a source of a squeezed radiation employing the method of evaluating the coherent-state propagator is presented. It is found that the cavity radiation exhibits squeezing which is directly attributed to the squeezed radiation initially present in the cavity. The intensity of the cavity radiation increases with the squeeze parameter and interaction time. It is also shown that a substantial degree of entanglement between the atomic state and radiation mode exits at a particular time which depends on the coupling constant and squeeze parameter. It is understood that although the squeezed radiation is directly accountable for the cavity squeezing, it significantly destroys the atom–radiation entanglement induced by the correlation between spontaneously emitted radiation and the atoms.     

Entanglement induced by spontaneous emission in spatially extended two-atom systems

Abstract

The role of the collective antisymmetric state in entanglement creation by spontaneous emission in a system of two non-overlapping two-level atoms has been investigated. Populations of the collective atomic states and the Wootters entanglement measure (concurrence) for two sets of initial atomic conditions are calculated and illustrated graphically. Calculations include the dipole-dipole interaction and a spatial separation between the atoms that the antisymmetric state of the system is included throughout even for small interatomic separations. It is shown that spontaneous emission can lead to a transient entanglement between the atoms even if the atoms were prepared initially in an unentangled state. It is found that the ability of spontaneous emission to create transient entanglement relies on the absence of population in the collective symmetric state of the system. For the initial state of only one atom excited, entanglement builds up rapidly in time and reaches a maximum for parameter values corresponding roughly to zero population in the symmetric state. On the other hand, for the initial condition of both atoms excited, the atoms remain unentangled until the symmetric state is depopulated. A simple physical interpretation of these results is given in terms of the diagonal states of the density matrix of the system. We also study entanglement creation in a system of two non-identical atoms of different transition frequencies. It is found that the entanglement between the atoms can be enhanced compared to that for identical atoms, and can decay with two different time scales resulting from the coherent transfer of the population from the symmetric to the antisymmetric state. In addition, it was found that a decaying initial entanglement between the atoms can display a revival behaviour.     

Entanglement sudden birth and sudden death in a system of two distant atoms coupled via an optical element

An investigation is reported of the collective effects and the dynamics of atom–atom entanglement in a system of two distant two-level atoms which are coupled via an optical element. In the system under consideration, the two atoms, which are trapped in the foci of a lens, are coupled to a common environment being in the vacuum state and they emit photons spontaneously. A fraction of the emitted photons from each atom is thus focused on the position of the other atom. The presence of optical element between two distant atoms leads to the occurrence of delayed collective effects, such as delayed dipole–dipole interaction and delayed collective spontaneous emission, which play the crucial role in the dynamical behaviour of the entanglement. We discuss the phenomena of entanglement sudden birth, entanglement sudden death, and revival of entanglement for both cases of initial one-photon and initial two-photon unentangled atomic states. We show that the evolution of the entanglement is sensitive not only to the interatomic distance but also to the initial state of the system as well as to the properties of the optical element.     

Entanglement-induced population trapping by Schrödinger's cat

Abstract

We propose an experiment that is a variation of the Schrödinger's cat ′paradox' wherein the entanglement between a microscopic system and a macroscopic system is of primary interest. The experiment involves tunable entanglement and serves as a model for controllable decoherence in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics where atoms interact dispersively with a cavity field initially in a coherent state. The interaction produces an entanglement between the atom and the field, and the degree of entanglement can be probed by subjecting the atom to resonant classical radiation after it leaves the cavity. The amplitude of the resulting Rabi oscillations reflects the degree of the entanglement, there being no Rabi oscillations when the entanglement is maximum. We show that the cavity damping does not affect the experiment.     

Violation of Mermin–Ardehali–Belinksii–Klyshko inequality in the three-Jaynes–Cummings model

In this paper, we consider the situation that three identical two-level atoms are separately trapped in the three single-mode cavities. Each atom resonantly interacts with cavity via a one-photon hopping. The dynamics of nonlocality in the system is investigated via Mermin–Ardehali–Belinksii–Klyshko inequality. The results show that when three atoms are initially in W state and three-cavity fields are in vacuum states both the quantum state of three atoms and that of three cavities all display nonlocality On the other hand, when three atoms are initially in Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state and three-cavity fields are in vacuum states, the quantum state of three atoms and that of three cavities all do not display nonlocality.     

Meeting Report

Abstract

The cooperative dynamics of a microlaser consisting of two threelevel atoms interacting with a pump field and two quantized cavity modes forming a radiative cascade are studied. Adiabatic elimination of one mode leads to a strong dynamical entanglement between the internal states of the atoms which allows us to study the effects of a cavity-mediated dipole-dipole interaction. We show that the coherent dynamics of the two-atom system will preferentially couple symmetrical linear combinations of internal states. If this coupling dominates the dynamics, the two-atom system will behave like a single atom with correspondingly larger dipole moment, that is a superradiant two-atom system. Even very small spontaneous decay causes transitions from symmetrical to antisymmetrical states and conversely. The hopping between two subsets of the state space can give rise to intriguing phenomena such as bistability of the laser mode intensity. By a randomization of the two coupling phases we recover the standard independent-atom laser theory.     

The dynamics of entanglement and quantum discord of two atoms in coupled cavities

We investigate the dynamics of quantum correlations such as entanglement and quantum discord between two noninteracting atoms, each of which is trapped inside one of two coupled cavities. We find that the cavity decay can induce both entanglement and quantum discord between the two atoms when they are initially prepared in doubly excited state. The result shows the sudden death and sudden birth of entanglement and robustness of the quantum discord to sudden death. It is also found that the doubly excited state is responsible for the sudden death of entanglement. Moreover, the sudden death of entanglement can be controlled by the intercavity hopping rate.     

Effects of cavity-field statistics on atomic entanglement in a two-mode Jaynes–Cummings model with intensity-dependent coupling

We study the entanglement properties of a pair of two-level Rydberg atoms passing one after another into a lossless cavity with two modes. The atoms interact with the cavity field via an intensity-dependent, non-degenerate two-photon transition. The initial joint state of two successive atoms that enter the cavity is unentangled. Interactions mediated by the two-mode cavity photon field result in the final two-atom mixed entangled type state. The entanglement of formation of the joint two-atom state as a function of the Rabi angle, gt, is calculated for the two-mode Fock state field, coherent field, and thermal field, respectively, inside the cavity. The change in the magnitude of atomic entanglement with cavity photon number in two modes has been studied.     

Controlling entanglement dynamics of two qubits coupled to a common reservoir via a coherent field

We investigate the time evolution of entanglement between two two-level atoms which are coupled to a common multimode electromagnetic reservoir and simultaneously driven by a coherent field. We find that the entanglement can always be created and maintained with a moderate intensity of the driving field during the track of approaching steady entangled states when both atoms are initially in their ground states and the reservoir is in the vacuum state or the squeezed vacuum state. We also show that the steady-state entanglement between the atoms can be enhanced by use of the coherent field when the reservoir is in the weakly squeezed vacuum state. More interestingly, in the squeezed reservoir case, the sudden death period in the time evolution of the entanglement can be removed by use of the coherent driving field.     

Entanglement between two Tavis–Cummings atoms with phase decoherence

Taking the intrinsic decoherence effect into account, we investigate the dynamical behavior of entanglement between two Tavis–Cummings atoms coupled to a single mode field. We find that entanglement characters including the stationary entanglement and the so-called sudden death effect are sensitive to initial atomic state and photon numbers.     

Entanglement between two atoms interacting with a stochastic field

The entanglement property between two two-level atoms interacting with a stochastic field is studied. We analytically prove that when the correlation time κ ^?1 of the stochastic field is very short compared to the radiative lifetime γ ^?1 of the atom, the steady-state entanglement between the two atoms can appear. The concurrence characterizing the entanglement degree has also been calculated by using Monte Carlo simulation. It is shown that the correlation time has a strong effect on the entanglement. We also discuss the influence of strength of the stochastic process on the entanglement. The validity of the decorrelation approximation is also investigated.     

The evolution and stability of quantum correlations in dissipative cavity

We investigate the dynamics of quantum correlations such as entanglement and quantum discord between two atoms in a lossy cavity. It is found that a stable quantum discord could be induced even when the atoms remain separable at all times. Also, we show that it is possible to amplify and protect the quantum discord under cavity decay for certain types of initial states. Moreover, entanglement decoherence-free subspaces are obtained which may be useful in quantum information and quantum computation.     

Local entanglement in a bimodal high- Q cavity: Production and utilization

A new conditional scheme for entangling the two quantized modes of a bimodal high-Q cavity field is presented. We show that, injecting one at time k atoms inside the cavity, it is possible to guide the field toward k-dependent linear combinations of k + 1 bimodal Fock states, each one possessing the same total number of photons. The two simple cases corresponding to the passage of one or two atoms only through the resonator are considered. Their practical feasibility against cavity losses, spontaneous emission and other sources of imprecision of the experimental set-up is discussed. Two examples illustrating the usefulness of and the interest toward the creation of such a local entanglement, are reported. The first one relates the specific features of these bimodal entangled states to the occurrence of a non-classical correlation effect in the dynamics of a two-level atom interacting with the entangled cavity. The second one demonstrates that the peculiar entanglement initially stored in the cavity in accordance with our method, provides an effectively exploitable resource to entangle two spatially separated cavities.     

Cooperativity and Entanglement of Atom-field States

Abstract

The Jaynes-Cummings model of a single two-level atom interacting with a quantized single-mode coherent field generates at the half-revival time a dynamically disentangled atom-field state. At such times, the field is in asymptotically pure Schrödinger cat state, a macroscopic superposition of distinct field eigenmodes. In this paper we address the problem of field purity when a second atom is allowed to interact with the cavity mode and becomes entangled with the first atom via their mutual cavity field with which they interact. We employ the collective Dicke states to describe the cooperative effects on the entanglement and show that the second atom spoils the purity of the field state except for special cases of the atom-field coupling or of initial conditions.     

Quantum state transfer between atoms located in coupled optical cavities

We investigated the interaction between two coupled cavities, each one of them interacting with a two-level atom in its interior. We observed that if one of the atoms is in a superposition state and the other parts of the system are in their fundamental states, it is possible to transfer this state to the atom in the other cavity through the temporal evolution of the system. The time-evolution behaviour of the system during this transfer was studied and we observed its dependence with the frequency of the atom and the coupling constant between the atom and its respective cavity.     

Permanently disentangled states of atom–field system via spontaneously generated coherence

Abstract

The effect of spontaneously generated coherence on evolution of the entanglement between a driven four-level Y-type atom and its spontaneous emission field is studied. We have shown that the atom will be entangled to its spontaneous emission field due to spontaneously generated coherence and coherent population trapping at the steady state. It is found that the degree of entanglement strongly depends on the initial atomic state. So, it can be controlled by the pumping laser pulses used for preparing an initial atomic system. More interestingly, the atom–field system can be found in a permanently disentangled state for a properly prepared atom.     

Dynamics of quantum steerability for two atoms in coupled cavities

We study the dynamics of quantum steerability between two non-interacting atoms, each of which is trapped inside one of two coupled cavities. Compared with entanglement, quantum steerability manifests sudden birth and sudden death phenomenon during the time evolution. We find that the cavity decay plays a destruction role for both steerability and entanglement. It is also shown that the survival time as well as the maximal value of steerability are sensitive to the asymmetry of the cavities. Moreover, it is found the sudden death of steerability can be controlled by the hopping rate of the coupled cavities.     

Time evolution of entanglement and bistability of two coupled quantum dots in a driven cavity

Abstract

The time evolution of entanglement between two quantum dots (QDs) trapped inside a cavity driven by a coherent quantized field is studied. In the presence of dissipation, entanglement shows many interesting features such as sudden death and revival, and finite steady state value after sudden death. We also investigate dependence of entanglement on dot variables and its relation to bistability. It is found that entanglement vanishes when the cavity field intensity approaches the upper branch of the bistability curve. When the cavity is driven by a modulated field in the presence of dissipation, it can periodically generate entanglement, which is much larger than the maximum value attained in the steady-state for this system but the dots are never fully entangled.     

Soliton collisions for a generalized variable-coefficient coupled Hirota–Maxwell–Bloch system for an erbium-doped optical fiber

In this paper, we construct soliton solutions for a generalized variable-coefficient coupled Hirota–Maxwell–Bloch system, which can describe the ultrashort optical pulse propagation in a nonlinear, dispersive fiber doped with two-level resonant atoms. Under certain transformations and constraints, one- and two-soliton solutions are obtained via the Hirota method and symbolic computation, and soliton collisions are graphically presented and analyzed. One soliton is shown to maintain its amplitude and shape during the propagation. Soliton collision is elastic, while bright two-peak solitons and dark two-peak solitons are also observed. We discuss the influence of the coefficients for the group velocity, group-velocity dispersion (GVD), self-phase modulation, distribution of the dopant, and Stark shift on the soliton propagation and collision features, with those coefficients are set as some constants and functions, respectively. We find the group velocity and self-phase modulation can change the solitons’ amplitudes and widths, and the solitons become curved when the GVD and distribution of the dopant are chosen as some functions. When the Stark shift is chosen as a certain constant, the two peaks of bright two-peak solitons and dark two-peak solitons are not parallel. In addition, we observe the periodic collision of the two solitons.