Non classical states of atomic ensembles: fundamentals and applications in quantum metrology
Quantum technologies exploit entanglement to revolutionize computing, measurement, and communication. This has stimulated the research in different areas of physics to engineer and manipulate fragile many particle entangled states. Progress has been particularly rapid for atoms. Thanks to the large and tunable nonlinearities and the well developed techniques for trapping, controlling and counting, many groundbreaking experiments have demonstrated the generation of entangled states of trapped ions, cold and ultracold gases of neutral atoms. Moreover, atoms can couple strongly to external forces and light fields, which makes them ideal for ultra precise sensing and time keeping. All these factors call for generating non classical atomic states designed for phase estimation in atomic clocks and atom interferometers, exploiting many body entanglement to increase the sensitivity of precision measurements. The goal of this article is to review and illustrate successful theoretical proposals and experiments with atomic ensembles that have demonstrated many particle entanglement and quantum enhanced metrology.