Hybrid matter-photon entanglement is the building block for quantum networks. It is very favorable if the entanglement can be prepared with a high probability. In this paper, we report the deterministic creation of entanglement between an atomic ensemble and a single photon by harnessing Rydberg blockade. We design a scheme that creates entanglement between a single photon's temporal modes and the Rydberg levels that host a collective excitation, using a process of cyclical retrieving and patching. The hybrid entanglement is tested via retrieving the atomic excitation as a second photon and performing correlation measurements, which suggest an entanglement fidelity of 87.8%. Our source of matter-photon entanglement will enable the entangling of remote quantum memories with much higher efficiency.
@article{arxiv.2108.02436,
title = {Deterministic Time-Bin Entanglement between a Single Photon and an Atomic Ensemble},
author = {Peng-Fei Sun and Yong Yu and Zi-Ye An and Jun Li and Chao-Wei Yang and Xiao-Hui Bao and Jian-Wei Pan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.02436},
year = {2022}
}