Density-matrix formalism for the photoion-electron entanglement in atomic photoionization

The density-matrix theory, based on Dirac's relativistic equation, is applied for studying the entanglement between the photoelectron and residual ion in the course of the photoionization of atoms and ions. In particular, emphasis is placed on deriving the final-state density matrix of the overall system 'photoion+electron', including interelectronic effects and the higher multipoles of the radiation field. This final-state density matrix enables one immediately to analyze the change of entanglement as a function of the energy, angle and the polarization of the incoming light. Detailed computations have been carried out for the 5s photoionization of neutral strontium, leading to a photoion in a 5s 2S Jf=1/2 level. It is found that the photoion-electron entanglement decreases significantly near the ionization threshold and that, in general, it depends on both the photon energy and angle. The possibility to extract photoion-electron pairs with a well-defined degree of entanglement may have far-reaching consequences for quantum information and elsewhere