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Generation and detection of atomic spin entanglement in optical lattices

Nature Physics volume 12, pages 783–787 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ultracold atoms in optical lattices hold promise for the creation of entangled states for quantum technologies. Here we report on the generation, manipulation and detection of atomic spin entanglement in an optical superlattice. Using a spin-dependent superlattice, atomic spins in the left or right sites can be individually addressed and coherently manipulated with near-unity fidelities by microwave pulses. The spin entanglement of the two atoms in the double wells of the superlattice is generated via the dynamical evolution governed by spin superexchange. By monitoring the collisional atom loss with in situ absorption imaging we measure the spin correlations of the atoms inside the double wells and obtain a lower bound on the entanglement fidelity of 0.79 ± 0.06, and a violation of a Bell’s inequality S = 2.21 ± 0.08.

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Figure 1: The experimental apparatus.
Figure 2: Observation of spin dynamics driven by the superexchange interaction.
Figure 3: Measurement of the entanglement phase.
Figure 4: Measurement of spin correlations and entanglement.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Yang, C. Lutz and T. Mandel for their help in setting up the experiment. This work was supported by the European Commission through an ERC-starting grant, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Fundamental Research Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 226, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

    Han-Ning Dai, Bing Yang, Andreas Reingruber, Xiao-Fan Xu, Zhen-Sheng Yuan & Jian-Wei Pan

  2. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China

    Han-Ning Dai, Bing Yang, Xiao Jiang, Yu-Ao Chen, Zhen-Sheng Yuan & Jian-Wei Pan

  3. CAS Centre for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Centre in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China

    Han-Ning Dai, Bing Yang, Xiao Jiang, Yu-Ao Chen, Zhen-Sheng Yuan & Jian-Wei Pan

  4. Department of Physics and Research Center OPTIMAS, University of Kaiserslautern, Erwin-Schroedinger-Strasse, Building 46, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Andreas Reingruber

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  1. Han-Ning Dai
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Contributions

Y.-A.C., Z.-S.Y. and J.-W.P. initiated and designed this research project. H.-N.D., B.Y., A.R., X.-F.X. and Z.-S.Y. set up the experiment. X.J. built the electronic circuits for the locking lasers. H.-N.D., B.Y. and A.R. performed the measurement and analysed the data. All authors contributed in writing the manuscript. Z.-S.Y. and J.-W.P. supervised the whole project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yu-Ao Chen, Zhen-Sheng Yuan or Jian-Wei Pan.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Dai, HN., Yang, B., Reingruber, A. et al. Generation and detection of atomic spin entanglement in optical lattices. Nature Phys 12, 783–787 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3705

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