Single-shot measurement of a Rydberg superatom via collective photon burst

Abstract

With Rydberg dipole interactions, a mesoscopic atomic ensemble may behave like a two-level single atom, resulting in the so-called picture of superatom. It is in potential a strong candidate as a qubit in quantum information science, especially for efficient coupling with single photons via collective enhancement that is essential for building quantum internet to connect remote quantum computers. Previously, preliminary studies have been carried out in demonstrating basic concept of Rydberg superatom, a single-photon source, and entanglement with a single photon, etc. While a crucial element of single-shot qubit measurement is still missing. Here we realize the deterministic measurement of a superatom qubit via photon burst in a single shot. We make use of a low-finesse ring cavity to enhance the atom-photon interaction and obtain an in-fiber retrieval efficiency of 44%. Harnessing dipole interaction between two Rydberg levels, we may either create a sequence of multiple single photons or nothing, conditioned on the initial qubit state. We achieve a single-shot measurement fidelity of 93.2% in 4.8 us. Our work complements the experimental toolbox of harnessing Rydberg superatom for quantum information applications.

6 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (6)

• The Quantum Internet
• Single Photon Transistor Mediated by Inter-State Rydberg Interaction
• Single-Photon Transistor Using a Förster Resonance
• Efficient and long-lived quantum memory with cold atoms inside a ring cavity
• Parallel low-loss measurement of multiple atomic qubits
• Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference between Two Deterministic Collective Excitations in an Atomic Ensemble

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Sequential generation of multiphoton entanglement with a Rydberg superatom
• Ultra-low noise quantum memory for quasi-deterministic single photons generated by Rydberg collective atomic excitations