Enhancing non-classical correlations for light scattered by an ensemble of cold two-level atoms

Abstract: We report the enhancement of quantum correlations for biphotons generated via spontaneous four-wave mixing in an ensemble of cold two-level atoms. This enhancement is based on the filtering of the Rayleigh linear component of the spectrum of the two emitted photons, favoring the quantum-correlated sidebands reaching the detectors. We provide direct measurements of the unfiltered spectrum presenting its usual triplet structure, with Rayleigh central components accompanied by two peaks symmetrically located at the detuning of the excitation laser with respect to the atomic resonance. The filtering of the central component results in a violation of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to $4.8 \pm 1.0 \leq 1$ for a detuning of 60 times the atomic linewidth, representing an enhancement by a factor of four compared with the unfiltered quantum correlations observed at the same conditions.