Quantum optics experiments with laser-cooled atoms and optical cavities

In this talk I will present my academic path in studying the interaction between light and laser-cooled atoms at the quantum level. I have studied this interaction both in the context of fundamental quantum optics and in the direction of developing applications in quantum information science. I will start briefly mentioning my early experiments during my PhD at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (Barcelona), where a cold atomic cloud was used as a quantum light-matter interface. We explored the encoding of multimode spin-photon correlations in the temporal degree of freedom, we generated spin-photon entanglement in the time domain, and we distributed photonic time-bin qubits between the atomic cloud and an ion-doped crystal quantum memory. During this period I was also involved in a project where we explored quantum information processing schemes based on Rydberg excitations in an atomic cloud.

I will then talk more extensively about my current project at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Garching), in which we perform experiments with single atoms that are coupled to two crossed optical cavities. I will focus on our latest results regarding the detection of single photon qubits in a nondestructive way, the efficient generation of photon pairs, and the generation of heralded atom-photon entanglement. Finally I will also mention our latest effort to distribute atom-photon entanglement over a metropolitan quantum communication fiber link.