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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

A Photonic System for Generating Unconditional Polarization-Entangled Photons Based on Multiple Quantum Interference
Published on: September 5, 2019
Measurement-Based Entanglement of Noninteracting Bosonic Atoms
Brian J Lester1, Yiheng Lin1, Mark O Brown1
1JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado, and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
Abstract:
We demonstrate the ability to extract a spin-entangled state of two neutral atoms via postselection based on a measurement of their spatial configuration. Typically, entangled states of neutral atoms are engineered via atom-atom interactions. In contrast, in our Letter, we use Hong-Ou-Mandel interference to postselect a spin-singlet state after overlapping two atoms in distinct spin states on an effective beam splitter. We verify the presence of entanglement and determine a bound on the postselected fidelity of a spin-singlet state of (0.62±0.03). The experiment has direct analogy to creating polarization entanglement with single photons and hence demonstrates the potential to use protocols developed for photons to create complex quantum states with noninteracting atoms.
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