Entanglement of Four Particles

Published

January 1, 2000

Author(s)

C A. Sackett, D Kielpinski, B E. King, Christopher Langer, V Meyer, C J. Myatt, M A. Rowe, Q A. Turchette, Wayne M. Itano, David J. Wineland, C Monroe

Abstract

Quantum mechanics allows for many-particle wavefunctions that cannot be factorized into a product of single-particle wavefunctions, even when the constituent particles are entirely distinct. Such ‘entangled’ states explicitly demonstrate the non-local character of quantum theory, having potential applications in high-precision spectroscopy, quantum communication, cryptography and computation3. In general, the more particles that can be entangled, the more clearly nonclassical effects are exhibited—and the more useful the states are for quantum applications. Here we implement a recently proposed entanglement technique to generate entangled states of two and four trapped ions. Coupling between the ions is provided through their collective motional degrees of freedom, but actual motional excitation is minimized. Entanglement is achieved using a single laser pulse, and the method can in principle be applied to any number of ions.

Citation

Nature

Volume

404

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

Sackett, C. , Kielpinski, D. , King, B. , Langer, C. , Meyer, V. , Myatt, C. , Rowe, M. , Turchette, Q. , Itano, W. , Wineland, D. and Monroe, C. (2000), Entanglement of Four Particles, Nature, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=105070 (Accessed October 2, 2025)