Polarization entanglement and quantum beats of photon pairs from four-wave mixing in a cold Rb-87 ensemble

Abstract

We characterize correlations in polarization and time of photon pairs generated from a cold cloud of Rb-87 atoms via a four-wave mixing process in a cascade level scheme. Quantum state tomography reveals entangled polarization states of high purity for each of the decay paths through two different intermediate hyperfine levels. When allowing both decay paths, we observe quantum beats in time-resolved correlation measurements.

10 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Counterintuitive temporal shape of single photons
• Quantum interference in the absorption and emission of single photons by a single ion

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Experimental conversion of position correlation into polarization entanglement
• Cold atoms in micromachined waveguides: a new platform for atom-photon interaction
• Characterization of a photon pair source based on a cold atomic ensemble using a cascade level scheme
• Wavelength conversion for single-photon polarization qubits through continuous variable quantum teleportation
• Superradiant parametric conversion of spin waves