Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference between Two Deterministic Collective Excitations in an Atomic Ensemble.
We demonstrate deterministic generation of two distinct collective excitations in one atomic ensemble, and we realize the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between them. Using Rydberg blockade we create single collective excitations in two different Zeeman levels, and we use stimulated Raman transitions to perform a beam-splitter operation between the excited atomic modes. By converting the atomic excitations into photons, the two-excitation interference is measured by photon coincidence detection with a visibility of 0.89(6). The Hong-Ou-Mandel interference witnesses an entangled NOON state of the collective atomic excitations, and we demonstrate its two times enhanced sensitivity to a magnetic field compared with a single excitation. Our work implements a minimal instance of boson sampling and paves the way for further multimode and multiexcitation studies with collective excitations of atomic ensembles.
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory, Shanghai 201315, China.
Jun
J
Li
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory, Shanghai 201315, China.
Ming-Ti
MT
Zhou
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory, Shanghai 201315, China.
Bo
B
Jing
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory, Shanghai 201315, China.
Xu-Jie
XJ
Wang
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory, Shanghai 201315, China.
Sheng-Jun
SJ
Yang
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory, Shanghai 201315, China.
Xiao
X
Jiang
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
Klaus
K
Mølmer
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory, Shanghai 201315, China.
Xiao-Hui
XH
Bao
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS Center for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Center in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory, Shanghai 201315, China.
Jian-Wei
JW
Pan