Quantum state entanglement and readout of collective atomic-ensemble modes and optical wave packets by stimulated Raman scattering

Abstract

A proposal is made for the creation of macroscopic quantum states of collective atomic-ensemble variables by the use of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), followed by conditional optical measurement. After the completion of the SRS process, one is able to reverse the process and to return all the atoms to their ground states in such a way that reads out an arbitrary quantum state of the collective atomic field and writes this state onto the outgoing optical field. This scheme can be used for the creation of entanglement between two distant atomic ensembles. The quantum analysis of the SRS process treats one-dimensional spatial-temporal propagation accurately. Remarkably, it is found that this multimode problem can be simplified to a two-mode problem involving spatial-temporal wave-packet modes of the optical and atomic collective fields. This improves the understanding of the entanglement created in this system.