Analysis of a proposal for a realistic loophole-free Bell test with atom-light entanglement

Abstract

The violation of Bell inequalities where both detection and locality loopholes are closed is crucial for device-independent assessments of quantum information. While of a technological nature, the simultaneous closing of both loopholes still remains a challenge. In Teo et al. [Nat. Commun. 4, 2104 (2013)], a realistic setup to produce an atom-photon entangled state that could reach a loophole-free Bell inequality violation within current experimental technology is proposed. Here we improve the analysis of this proposal by giving an analytical treatment that shows that the state proposed in Teo et al. [Nat. Commun. 4, 2104 (2013)] can violate a Bell inequality for arbitrarily low photodectection efficiency, when all other losses are ignored. Moreover, it is also able to violate a Bell inequality considering only atomic and homodyne measurements eliminating the need to consider inefficient photocounting measurements. In this case, the maximum Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality violation achievable is 2.29, and the minimum transmission required for violation is about 68%. Finally, we show that by postselecting on an atomic measurement, one can engineer superpositions of coherent states for various coherent state amplitudes.