We study the conditions for generating spin squeezing via a quantum non-demolition measurement in an ensemble of cold 87Rb atoms. By considering the interaction of atoms in the 5S_{1/2}(F=1) ground state with probe light tuned near the D2 transition, we show that, for large detunings, this system is equivalent to a spin-1/2 system when suitable Zeeman substates and quantum operators are used to define a pseudo-spin. The degree of squeezing is derived for the rubidium system in the presence of scattering causing decoherence and loss. We describe how the system can decohere and lose atoms, and predict as much as 75% spin squeezing for atomic densities typical of optical dipole traps.
Cold atoms from a magneto-optic trap have been used as a nonlinear medium in a nearly resonant cavity. Squeezing in a probe beam passing through the cavity was demonstrated. The measured noise reduction is 40% for free atoms and 20% for weakly trapped atoms.
We study the interaction of a nearly resonant linearly polarized laser beam with a cloud of cold cesium atoms in a high finesse optical cavity. We show theoretically and experimentally that the cross-Kerr effect due to the saturation of the optical transition produces quadrature squeezing on both the mean field and the orthogonally polarized vacuum mode. An interpretation of this vacuum squeezing as polarization squeezing is given and a method for measuring quantum Stokes parameters for weak beams via a local oscillator is developed.
We consider a system of laser-cooled ions in a linear harmonic trap and study the phenomenon of squeezing exchange between their internal and motional degrees of freedom. An interesting relation between the quantum noise reduction (squeezing) and the dynamical evolution is found when the internal and motional subsystems are prepared in properly squeezed (intelligent) states. Specifically, the evolution of the system is fully governed by the relative strengths of spectroscopic and motional squeezing, including the phenomenon of total cancellation of the interaction when the initial squeezing pa…
We analyse the possibility to create two-mode spin squeezed states of two separate spin ensembles by inverting the spins in one ensemble and allowing spin exchange between the ensembles via a near resonant cavity field. We investigate the dynamics of the system using a combination of numerical and analytic calculations, and we obtain squeezing for a wide range of parameters. We also investigate the transfer of the squeezing properties to the cavity field and to an output mode from the cavity. Finally, we investigate how the squeezing is affected by effects of inhomogeneities which would be pre…
We propose an efficient method for controlled generation of field squeezing with cold atomic clouds trapped close to a superconducting transmission line resonator. It is shown that, based on the coherent strong magnetic coupling between the collective atomic spins and microwave fields in the transmission line resonator, two-mode or single mode field squeezed states can be generated through coherent control on the dynamics of the system. The degree of squeezing and preparing time can be directly controlled through tuning the external classical fields. This protocol may offer a promising platfor…
We propose a potentially practical scheme for realization of two-mode squeezed state with respect to two distant nitrogen-vacancy center ensembles coupled to two interconnected mechanical modes of diamond nanoresonators. By making use of the tunable phonon-spin interaction and the engineered phonon-phonon tunneling, both the desired excitation transfer process and the optimal two-mode squeezing between spin ensembles can be realized. We investigate the dynamics of the total system under infulences from the mechanical decay using both analytical and numerical methods, where the realistic condit…
The generated magnitude of quadrature squeezing in a cavity-coupled ensemble, which is continuously driven using a coherent off-axis field, is theoretically explored. Using a truncated set of equations-of-motion derived from a Dicke Hamiltonian, steady-state quadrature squeezing of the cavity field is numerically calculated to approach a limit of -3 dB, while frequency-modulated quadrature squeezing approaches a limit of -14 dB, in the absence of pure-dephasing, and as a function of the ensemble's size and detuning. The impact of pure-dephasing on steady-state quadrature squeezing is shown to …
To establish an applicable system for advanced quantum information processing between light and atoms, we have demonstrated the quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement with a collective spin of cold ytterbium atoms (171Yb), and observed 1.8 (-1.5, +2.4) dB spin squeezing. Since a 171Yb atom has only a nuclear spin of 1/2 in the ground state, the system is the simplest spin ensemble and robust against decoherence. We used very short pulses with the width of 100 ns, so the interaction time became much shorter than the decoherence time, which is important for multi-step quantum information proce…
Entangled many body systems have recently attracted significant attention in various contexts. Among them, spin squeezed atoms and ions have raised interest in the field of precision measurements, as they allow to overcome quantum noise of uncorrelated particles. Precise quantum state engineering is also required as a resource for quantum computation, and spin squeezing can be used to create multi-partite entangled states. Two-mode spin squeezed systems have been used for elementary quantum communication protocols. Until now spin squeezing has been always achieved via generation of entanglemen…
This dissertation studies spin squeezing, entanglement and decoherence in large ensembles of cold, trapped alkali atoms with hyperfine spin f interacting with optical fields. Restricting the state of each atom to a qutrit embedded in the 2f+1 dimensional hyperfine spin enables us to efficiently model the coherent and dissipative dynamics of the ensemble. This formalism also allows us to explore the effects of local control on the internal hyperfine spins of the atoms. State preparation using such control increases the entangling power of the atom-light interface for f>1/2. Subsequent control o…
We propose and analyze a simple method to squeeze dynamically and unconditionally the collective spin of a dilute atomic ensemble by interaction with a driven mode of an optical resonator, as recently demonstrated [I. D. L., M. H. S., and V. V., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 073602 (2010)]. We show that substantial squeezing can be achieved in the regime of strong collective ensemble-resonator coupling. The squeezing is ultimately limited either by photon emission into free space or by the curvature of the Bloch sphere. We derive both limits and show where each prevails.
We propose schemes for the unconditional preparation of a two-mode squeezed state of effective bosonic modes realized in a pair of atomic ensembles interacting collectively with optical cavity and laser fields. The scheme uses Raman transitions between stable atomic ground states and under ideal conditions produces pure entangled states in the steady state. The scheme works both for ensembles confined within a single cavity and for ensembles confined in separate, cascaded cavities.
We have characterized spin-squeezed states produced at a temperature of $26^\circ{\mathrm C}$ on a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) quadrupolar system. The implementation is carried out in an ensemble of $^{133}$Cs nuclei with spin $I=7/2$ of a lyotropic liquid crystal sample. We identify the source of spin squeezing due to the interaction between the quadrupole moment of the nuclei and the electric field gradients internally present in the molecules. We use the spin angular momentum representation to describe formally the nonlinear operators that produce the spin squeezing. The quantitative a…
It has been shown elsewhere that two spatially separated atoms can jointly absorb one photon, whose frequency is equal to the sum of the transition frequencies of the two atoms. We describe this process in the presence of an ensemble of many two-level atoms, and show that it can be used to generate spin squeezing and entanglement. This resonant collective process allows to create a sizeable squeezing already at the single-photon limit. It represents a novel way for generating manybody spin-spin interactions, yielding a two-axis twisting-like interaction among the spins, which is very effcient …
We report the generation of a macroscopic singlet state in a cold atomic sample via quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement induced spin squeezing. We observe 3 dB of spin squeezing and detect entanglement of up to $5.5\times10^5 $ atoms with $5σ$ statistical significance using a generalized spin squeezing inequality. The degree of squeezing implies at least 50% of the atoms have formed singlets, while the response to a magnetic field gradient indicates entanglement bonds at all length scales, a characteristic of quantum spin liquids.
We show that an ensemble of identical d-level atoms can be efficiently described by d-1 collective oscillator degrees of freedom in the vicinity of a product state with all atoms in the same, but otherwise arbitrary single-particle state. We apply our description to two different kinds of spin squeezing: (i) when each spin-F atom is individually squeezed without creating interatomic entanglement and (ii) when a particular collective atomic oscillator mode is squeezed via quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement and feedback. When combined in sequence, the order of the two methods is relevant i…
Planar squeezed states, i.e. quantum states which are squeezed in two orthogonal spin components, have recently attracted attention due to their applications in atomic interferometry and quantum information [Q. Y. He et al, New J. Phys. 14, 093012 (2012)]. While canonical variables such as quadratures of the radiation field can be squeezed in at most one component, simultaneous squeezing in two orthogonal spin components can be achieved due to the angular momentum commutation relations. We present a novel scheme for planar squeezing via quantum non-demolition (QND) measurements in spin-1 syste…
Quantum squeezing and entanglement of spins can be used to improve the sensitivity in quantum metrology. Here we propose a scheme to create collective coupling of an ensemble of spins to mechanical vibrational mode actuated by an external magnetic field. We find an evolution time where the mechanical motion decouples from the spins, and the accumulated geometric phase yields a squeezing of $5.9~\text{dB}$ for $20$ spins. We also show the creation of a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger spin state for $20$ spins with a fidelity of $\sim 0.62$ at cryogenic temperature. The numerical simulations show th…
We investigate how entangled coherent states and superpositions of low intensity coherent states of non-Gaussian nature can be generated via non-resonant interaction between either two linearly or circularly polarized field modes and an ensemble of X-like four-level atoms placed in an optical cavity. We compare our results to recent experimental observations and argue that the non-Gaussian structure of the field states may be present in those systems.
We propose a scheme for the generation of strong mechanical squeezing beyond 3dB in hybrid atom-optomechanical systems in the highly unresolved sideband (HURSB) regime where the decay rate of cavity is much larger than the frequency of the mechanical oscillator. The system is formed by two two-level atomic ensembles and an optomechanical system with cavity driven by two lasers with different amplitudes. In the HURSB regime, the squeezing of the movable mirror can not be larger than 3dB if no atomic ensemble or only one atomic ensemble is put into the optomechanical system. However, if two atom…
A scheme to achieve spin squeezing using a geometric phase induced by a single mechanical mode is proposed. The analytical and numerical results show that the ultimate degree of spin squeezing depends on the parameter $\frac{n_{th}+1/2}{Q\sqrt{N}}$, which is the ratio between the thermal excitation, the quality factor and square root of ensemble size. The undesired coupling between the spin ensemble and the bath can be efficiently suppressed by Bang-Bang control pulses. With high quality factor, the ultimate limit of the ideal one-axis twisting spin squeezing can be obtained for an NV ensemble…
Using a quantum theory for an ensemble of three-level atoms (lambda) placed in an optical cavity abd driven by electromagnetic fields, we show that the long-lived spin associated with the ground state sublevels can be squeezed. Two kinds of squeezing are obtained: self-spin squeezing, when the input fields are coherent states and the atomic ensemble exhibit a large non-linearity; squeezing transfer, when one of the incoming fields is squeezed.
We propose a simple method for generating spin squeezing of atomic ensembles in a Floquet cavity subject to a weak, detuned two-photon driving. We demonstrate that {\it the weak squeezing of light inside the cavity can, counterintuitively, induce strong spin squeezing}. This is achieved by exploiting the anti-Stokes scattering process of a photon pair interacting with an atom. Specifically, {\it one photon of the photon pair is scattered into the cavity resonance by absorbing partially the energy of the other photon whose remaining energy excites the atom}. The scattering, combined with a Floq…
We study the multipartite correlations of the multi-atom dark states, which are characterized by the atomic squeezing beyond the pairwise entanglement. It is shown that, in the photon storage process with atomic ensemble via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) mechanism, the atomic squeezing and the pairwise entanglement can be created by adiabatically manipulating the Rabi frequency of the classical light field on the atomic ensemble. We also consider the sudden death for the atomic squeezing and the pairwise entanglement under various decoherence channels. An optimal time for gene…
We analyze the creation of spin squeezed atomic ensembles by simultaneous dispersive interactions with several optical frequencies. A judicious choice of optical parameters enables optimization of an interferometric detection scheme that suppresses inhomogeneous light shifts and keeps the interferometer operating in a balanced mode that minimizes technical noise. We show that when the atoms interact with two-frequency light tuned to cycling transitions the degree of spin squeezing $ξ^2$ scales as $ξ^2\sim 1/d$ where $d$ is the resonant optical depth of the ensemble. In real alkali atoms there …
The strong light-matter coupling attainable in optical cavities enables the generation of highly squeezed states of atomic ensembles. It was shown in [Phys. Rev. A 66, 022314 (2002)] how an effective one-axis twisting Hamiltonian can be realized in a cavity setup. Here, we extend this work and show how an effective two-axis twisting Hamiltonian can be realized in a similar cavity setup. We compare the two schemes in order to characterize their advantages. In the absence of decoherence, the two-axis Hamiltonian leads to more squeezing than the one-axis Hamiltonian. If limited by decoherence fro…
We propose a method for engineering spin dynamics in ensembles of integer-spin atoms confined within a high-finesse optical cavity. Our proposal uses cavity-assisted Raman transitions to engineer a Dicke model for integer-spin atoms, which, in a dispersive limit, reduces to effective atom-atom interactions within the ensemble. This scheme offers a promising and flexible new avenue for the exploration of a wide range of spinor many-body physics. As an example of this, we present results showing that this method can be used to generate spin-nematic squeezing in an ensemble of spin-1 atoms. With …
We observe that a weak guided light field transmitted through an ensemble of atoms coupled to an optical nanofiber exhibits quadrature squeezing. From the measured squeezing spectrum we gain direct access to the phase and amplitude of the energy-time entangled part of the two-photon wavefunction which arises from the strongly correlated transport of photons through the ensemble. For small atomic ensembles we observe a spectrum close to the lineshape of the atomic transition, while sidebands are observed for sufficiently large ensembles, in agreement with our theoretical predictions. Furthermor…
Squeezing ensemble of spins provides a way to surpass the standard quantum limit (SQL) in quantum metrology and test the fundamental physics as well, and therefore attracts broad interest. Here we propose an experimentally accessible protocol to squeeze a giant ensemble of spins via the geometric phase control. Using the cavity-assisted Raman transitions in a double $Λ$-type system, we realize an effective Dicke model. Under the condition of vanishing effective spin transition frequency, we find a particular evolution time where the cavity decouples from the spins and the spin ensemble is sque…
We study the three-dimensional nature of the quantum interface between an ensemble of cold, trapped atomic spins and a paraxial laser beam, coupled through a dispersive interaction. To achieve strong entanglement between the collective atomic spin and the photons, one must match the spatial mode of the collective radiation of the ensemble with the mode of the laser beam while minimizing the effects of decoherence due to optical pumping. For ensembles coupling to a probe field that varies over the extent of the cloud, the set of atoms that indistinguishably radiates into a desired mode of the f…
We present a scheme to generate steady-state atomic spin squeezing in a cavity QED system using cavity-mediated Raman transitions to engineer effective atom-photon interactions, which include both linear and nonlinear (dispersive) atom-cavity couplings, on a potentially equal footing. We focus on a regime where the dispersive coupling is very large and find that the steady state of the system can in fact be a strongly spin-squeezed Dicke state, $|N/2,0\rangle$, of the atomic ensemble. These states offer Heisenberg-limited metrological properties and feature genuine multipartite entanglement am…
It is shown that the ensemble $\{p (α),|α>|α^*>\}$ where $p (α)$ is a Gaussian distribution of finite variance and $| α>$ is a coherent state can be better discriminated with an entangled measurement than with any local strategy supplemented by classical communication. Although this ensemble consists of products of quasi-classical states, it exhibits some quantum nonlocality. This remarkable effect is demonstrated experimentally by implementing the optimal local strategy together with a joint nonlocal strategy that yields a higher fidelity.
We derive fidelity benchmarks for the quantum storage and teleportation of squeezed states of continuous variable systems, for input ensembles where the degree of squeezing $s$ is fixed, no information about its orientation in phase space is given, and the distribution of phase space displacements is a Gaussian. In the limit where the latter becomes flat, we prove analytically that the maximal classical achievable fidelity (which is 1/2 without squeezing, for $s=1$) is given by $\sqrt{s}/(1+s)$, vanishing when the degree of squeezing diverges. For mixed states, as well as for general distribut…
We study the process of squeezing of an ensemble of cold atoms in a pulsed optical lattice. The problem is treated both classically and quantum-mechanically under various thermal conditions. We show that a dramatic compression of the atomic density near the minima of the optical potential can be achieved with a proper pulsing of the lattice. Several strategies leading to the enhanced atomic squeezing are suggested, compared and optimized.
Quantum spin squeezing is an important resource for quantum information processing, but its squeezing degree is not easy to preserve in an open system with decoherence. Here, we propose a scheme to implement single-photon-triggered spin squeezing with decoherence reduction in an open system. In our system, a Dicke model (DM) is introduced into the quadratic optomechanics, which can be equivalent to an effective DM manipulated by the photon number. Besides, the phonon mode of the optomechanical system is coupled to a squeezed vacuum reservoir with a phase matching, resulting in that the thermal…
We investigate theoretically quantum entanglement of light with the collective spin polarization of a cold atomic ensemble in cavity-assisted Raman schemes. Previous works concentrated mostly on the bad cavity limit where the signals are much longer than the cavity field lifetime. In view of atomic relaxation and other imperfections, there may arise a need to speed-up the light-atoms interface operation. By increasing the cavity field lifetime, one can achieve better light-matter coupling and entanglement. In our work, we consider the non-adiabatic effects that become important beyond the bad …
We investigate the possibility to perform a Quantum Non Demolition measurement of the collective alignment of an atomic ensemble in the case of a $F\geq 1$ spin. We compare the case of purely vectorial and purely tensorial Hamiltonians and show how to achieve conditional squeezing or entanglement of atomic alignment components.
We investigate theoretically and experimentally a nondestructive interferometric measurement of the state population of an ensemble of laser cooled and trapped atoms. This study is a step towards generation of (pseudo-) spin squeezing of cold atoms targeted at the improvement of the Caesium clock performance beyond the limit set by the quantum projection noise of atoms. We calculate the phase shift and the quantum noise of a near resonant optical probe pulse propagating through a cloud of cold 133Cs atoms. We analyze the figure of merit for a quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement of the col…
We propose an efficient method to protect spin squeezing under the action of amplitude-damping, depolarizing and phase-damping channels based on measurement reversal from weak measurement, and consider an ensemble of N independent spin-1/2 particles with exchange symmetry. We find that spin squeezing can be enhanced greatly under three different decoherence channels and spin-squeezing sudden death (SSSD) can be avoided undergoing amplitude damping and phase-damping channels.
We propose a method to achieve quantum supremacy using ensembles of qubits, using only spin squeezing, basis rotations, and Fock state measurements. Each ensemble is assumed to be controllable only with its total spin. Using a repeated sequence of random basis rotations followed by squeezing, we show that the probability distribution of the final measurements quickly approaches a Porter-Thomas distribution. We show that the sampling probability can be related to a #P-hard problem with a complexity scaling as $(N+1)^M$, where $N$ is the number of qubits in an ensemble and $ M $ is the number of…
We study the relations between spin squeezing and concurrence, and find that they are qualitatively equivalent for an ensemble of spin-1/2 particles with exchange symmetry and parity, if we adopt the spin squeezing criterion given by the recent work (G. Toth et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 250405 (2007)). This suggests that the spin squeezing has more intimate relations with pairwise entanglement. We exemplify the result by considering a superposition of two Dicke states.
We study a bulk fermionic dipolar molecular gas in the quantum degenerate regime confined in a two-dimensional geometry. We consider two rotational states that encode a spin 1/2 degree of freedom. We derive a long-range interacting XXZ model describing the many-body spin dynamics of the molecules valid in the regime where motional degrees of freedom are frozen. Due to the spatially extended nature of the harmonic oscillator modes, the interactions in the spin model are very long-ranged and the system behaves close to the collective limit, resulting in robust dynamics and generation of entangle…
We describe an efficient numerical method for simulating the dynamics of interacting spin ensembles in the presence of dephasing and decay. The method builds on the discrete truncated Wigner approximation for isolated systems, which combines the mean-field dynamics of a spin ensemble with a Monte Carlo sampling of discrete initial spin values to account for quantum correlations. Here we show how this approach can be generalized for dissipative spin systems by replacing the deterministic mean-field evolution by a stochastic process, which describes the decay of coherences and populations while …
We derive and evaluate equations of motion for the mean values and variances of the components of spins collectively coupled to a broadband squeezed radiation reservoir. Our formalism bridges between a single two-level emitter, represented by spin components that relax at different rates, depending on the degree of squeezing, to an ensemble of emitters represented by a large collective spin, whose components relax independently of the squeezing. For a single spin, the steady state fluctuations in the transverse components are independent of the squeezing, while the steady state of a large spin…
Spin squeezing is one of the most attractive methods for realizing high-precision metrology. In this paper, we propose a protocol for generating spin squeezing in an atomic ensemble via a fully quantum degenerate parametric amplifier. We discuss the properties of generating spin squeezing with and without driving the pump cavity. Numerical simulation results show that the generated spin squeezing strength is sizable, and is able to be comparable to that obtained using a two-axis twisting (TAT) model. Moreover, we demonstrate that the protocol is experimentally feasible by introducing the corre…
Investigations of spin squeezing in ensembles of quantum particles have been limited primarily to a subspace of spin fluctuations and a single spatial mode in high-spin and spatially extended ensembles. Here, we show that a wider range of spin-squeezing is attainable in ensembles of high-spin atoms, characterized by sub-quantum-limited fluctuations in several independent planes of spin-fluctuation observables. Further, considering the quantum dynamics of an $f=1$ ferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, we demonstrate theoretically that a high degree of spin squeezing is attained in mult…
The unconditionally squeezing of the collective spin of an atomic ensemble in a laser driven optical cavity (I. D. Leroux, M. H. Schleier-Smith, and V. Vuletic, Phys. Rev. Lett 104, 073602 (2010)) is studied and analyzed theoretically. Surprisingly, we find that the largely detuned driving laser can improve the scaling of cavity squeezing from $S^{-2/5}$ to $S^{-2/3}$, where S is the total atomic spin. Moreover, we also demonstrate that the experimental imperfection of photon scattering into free space can be efficiently suppressed by detuning.
We introduce tqix.pis, a library of tqix, for quantum dynamics simulation of spin ensembles. The library emulates a dynamic process by a quantum circuit, including initializing a quantum state, executing quantum operators, and measuring the final state. It utilizes collective processes in spin ensembles to reduce the dimension from exponentially to quadratically with the number of particles, i.e., the quantum state spans in Dicke basis. It also facilitates the simulation time with multi-core processors and Graphics Processing Units. The library is thus applicable for the simulation of ensemble…
We present a protocol for the teleportation of the quantum state of a pulse of light onto the collective spin state of an atomic ensemble. The entangled state of light and atoms employed as a resource in this protocol is created by probing the collective atomic spin, Larmor precessing in an external magnetic field, off resonantly with a coherent pulse of light. We take here for the first time full account of the effects of Larmor precession and show that it gives rise to a qualitatively new type of multimode entangled state of light and atoms. The protocol is shown to be robust against the dom…
We propose a method of generating unitarily single and two-mode field squeezing in an optical cavity with an atomic cloud. Through a suitable laser system, we are able to engineer a squeeze field operator decoupled from the atomic degrees of freedom, yielding a large squeeze parameter that is scaled up by the number of atoms, and realizing degenerate and non-degenerate parametric amplification. By means of the input-output theory we show that ideal squeezed states and perfect squeezing could be approached at the output. The scheme is robust to decoherence processes.
We evaluate the squeezing of a probe beam with a transverse Gaussian profile interacting with an ensemble of two-level atoms in a cavity. We use the linear input-output formalism where the effect of atoms is described by susceptibility and noise functions. The transverse structure is accounted for by averaging atomic functions over the intensity profile. The results of the plane-wave and Gaussian-wave theories are compared. When large squeezing is predicted we find the prediction of the plane-wave model not to be reliable outside the Kerr domain. We give an estimate of the squeezing degradatio…
