Abstract
We experimentally demonstrate the heralded generation of bichromatic single photons from an atomic collective spin excitation (CSE). The photon arrival times display collective quantum beats, a novel interference effect resulting from the relative motion of atoms in the CSE. A combination of velocity-selective excitation with strong laser dressing and the addition of a magnetic field allows for exquisite control of this collective beat phenomenon. The present experiment uses a diamond scheme with near-IR photons that can be extended to include telecommunications wavelengths or modified to allow storage and retrieval in an inverted-Y scheme.
Highlights
We experimentally demonstrate the heralded generation of bichromatic single photons from an atomic collective spin excitation (CSE)
Another major challenge facing the application of thermal atomic vapors to quantum-state engineering is motion-induced dephasing [21] because of the broad atomic velocity distribution
It is interesting to consider novel quantum states that exploit this motion, for example, when a single excitation is stored in an entangled state of two atoms with relative motion
Summary
We experimentally demonstrate the heralded generation of bichromatic single photons from an atomic collective spin excitation (CSE). Combining the application of a large magnetic field and strong laser dressing in a velocity-selective laddertype excitation, we demonstrate excellent control over the state preparation. Since the strong driving preferentially selects two atomic velocity classes, the photon detection heralds the coherent splitting of the single excitation into these two velocity groups.
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