Entanglement between electronic and vibrational Schrödinger-cat states in coupled molecules
N. S. Maslova, Vladimir N. Mantsevich, P. I. Arseyev, Igor M. Sokolov · Physical Review A · 2020
In the present work we theoretically analyze the emergence appearance of entanglement between electronic and vibrational states in a system of two coupled molecules after switching on the interaction between them. In the framework of the adiabatic approach this effect appears because the equilibrium position of one of the molecules is sensitive to its electron occupation. The time evolution of the system shows multiple changes between its entangled and unentangled states. If this evolution starts from a pure coherent vibrational mode state and a state of a single electron localized in one of the molecules, the Schr\"odinger-cat states can appear during the system's time evolution. The Schr\"odinger-cat states can arise as a quantum superposition of distinct coherent states of molecule vibrational mode. Such states are entangled with empty and singly occupied electronic states of the molecule. The presence of entanglement between electronic and vibrational molecule states can be revealed by measuring the electron occupation (charge) of a particular molecule.