Generation of multipartite continuous-variable entanglement via atomic spin wave: Heisenberg-Langevin approach.

We conduct theoretical studies on the effects of various parameters on generation of multipartite continuous-variable entanglement via atomic spin wave induced by the strong coupling and probe fields in the Λ-type electromagnetically induced transparency configuration in a realistic atomic ensemble by using the Heisenberg-Langevin formalism. It is shown that the increase of the atomic density and/or Rabi frequencies of the scattering fields, as well as the decrease of the coherence decay rate of the lower doublet would strengthen the degree of multipartite entanglement. This provides a clear evidence that the creation of multicolor multipartite entangled narrow-band fields to any desired number with a long correlation time can be achieved conveniently by using atomic spin wave in an atomic ensemble with large optical depth, which may find interesting applications in quantum information processing and quantum networks.

A universal quantum information processor for scalable quantum communication and networks.

Entanglement provides an essential resource for quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum networks. How to conveniently and efficiently realize the generation, distribution, storage, retrieval, and control of multipartite entanglement is the basic requirement for realistic quantum information processing. Here, we present a theoretical proposal to efficiently and conveniently achieve a universal quantum information processor (QIP) via atomic coherence in an atomic ensemble. The atomic coherence, produced through electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in the Λ-type configuration, acts as the QIP and has full functions of quantum beam splitter, quantum frequency converter, quantum entangler, and quantum repeater. By employing EIT-based nondegenerate four-wave mixing processes, the generation, exchange, distribution, and manipulation of light-light, atom-light, and atom-atom multipartite entanglement can be efficiently and flexibly achieved in a deterministic way with only coherent light fields. This method greatly facilitates the operations in quantum information processing, and holds promising applications in realistic scalable quantum communication and quantum networks.