Abstract
The demonstration of optical multipath interference from a large number of quantum emitters is essential for the realization of many paradigmatic experiments in quantum optics. However, such interference remains still unexplored as it crucially depends on the sub-wavelength positioning accuracy and stability of all emitters. We present the observation of controlled interference of light scattered from strings of up to 53 trapped ions. The light scattered from ions localized in a harmonic trapping potential is collected along the ion crystal symmetry axis, which guarantees the spatial indistinguishability and allows for an efficient scaling of the contributing ion number. We achieve the preservation of the coherence of scattered light observable for all the measured string sizes and nearly-optimal enhancement of phase sensitivity. The presented results will enable realization and control of directional photon emission, direct detection of enhanced quadrature squeezing of atomic resonance fluorescence, or optical generation of genuine multi-partite entanglement of atoms.
Highlights
Optical coherence constitutes an exquisite tool for testing fundamental theories and its control has provided many dramatic advancements in practical applications of controlled atomic systems [1, 2]
Optical coherence can be accessed by the precise knowledge of the interaction of light with the traversed environment which, at its most fundamental level, can be studied down to individual atoms
The coherent light scattering from ensembles of individual atoms corresponds to a crucial tool for investigation of many fundamental phenomena in quantum optics and could provide a viable approach for scaling up of some of its exquisite applications [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11], it has been almost exclusively observed in systems consisting of very few atoms [12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17]
Summary
Optical coherence constitutes an exquisite tool for testing fundamental theories and its control has provided many dramatic advancements in practical applications of controlled atomic systems [1, 2]. The broad application prospects have stimulated a number of pioneering experiments, where the sub-wavelength localization of contributing atoms has become evident in the observable interference of scattered light [33, 34, 35, 36, 17, 37, 38, 39, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16] They have been technologically approached mainly from two complementary directions: one employing the convenient scalability of number of neutral atoms confined in individual optical lattice sites [33, 34, 35, 36, 17, 37, 38, 39] and other exploiting the natural sub-wavelength localization and individual addressability of atomic ions stored in Paul traps [12, 13, 14, 15, 16]. Simultaneous achievement of all these experimental conditions was crucial for demonstrated preservation of interference visibility for up to 53 ions and narrowing the width of interference peak to less than one third when compared to the two-ion case
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