Minimum detection efficiency for a loophole-free atom-photon bell experiment

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Jun 1;98(22):220402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.220402. Epub 2007 May 31.

Abstract

In Bell experiments, one problem is to achieve high enough photodetection to ensure that there is no possibility of describing the results via a local hidden-variable model. Using the Clauser-Horne inequality and a two-photon nonmaximally entangled state, a photodetection efficiency higher than 0.67 is necessary. Here we discuss atom-photon Bell experiments. We show that, assuming perfect detection efficiency of the atom, it is possible to perform a loophole-free atom-photon Bell experiment whenever the photodetection efficiency exceeds 0.50.