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arXiv:0808.2010 · Physical Review A

Dynamical oscillator-cavity model for quantum memories

Qiongyi He, M. D. Reid, E. Giacobino, J. Cviklinski, P. D. Drummond

Published Feb 9, 2009• 37 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose a dynamical approach to quantum memories using an oscillator-cavity model. This overcomes the known difficulties of achieving high quantum input-output fidelity with long storage times compared to the input signal duration. We use a generic model of the memory response, which is applicable to any linear storage medium ranging from a superconducting device to an atomic medium. The temporal switching or gating of the device may either be through a control field changing the coupling, or through a variable detuning approach, as in more recent quantum memory experiments. An exact calculation of the temporal memory response to an external input is carried out. This shows that there is a mode-matching criterion which determines the optimum input and output pulse time evolution. This optimum pulse shape can be modified by changing the gate characteristics. In addition, there is a critical coupling between the atoms and the cavity that allows high fidelity in the presence of long storage times. The quantum fidelity is calculated both for the coherent state protocol, and for a completely arbitrary input state with a bounded total photon number. We show how a dynamical quantum memory can surpass the relevant classical memory bound, while retaining long storage times.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.79.022310

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We propose a dynamical approach to quantum memories using an oscillator-cavity model. This overcomes the known difficulties of achieving high quantum input-output fidelity with long storage times compared to the input signal duration. We use a generic model of the memory response, which is applicable to any linear storage medium ranging from a superconducting device to an atomic medium. The temporal switching or gating of the device may either be through a control field changing the coupling, or through a variable detuning approach, as in more recent quantum memory experiments. An exact calculation of the temporal memory response to an external input is carried out. This shows that there is a mode-matching criterion which determines the optimum input and output pulse time evolution. This optimum pulse shape can be modified by changing the gate characteristics. In addition, there is a critical coupling between the atoms and the cavity that allows high fidelity in the presence of long storage times. The quantum fidelity is calculated both for the coherent state protocol, and for a completely arbitrary input state with a bounded total photon number. We show how a dynamical quantum memory can surpass the relevant classical memory bound, while retaining long storage times.
Microwave quantum memory represents a critical component for quantum radars and resource-efficient approaches to quantum error correction. Superconducting microwave resonators provide highly efficient storage, long coherence times, on-demand reading, and even memory pulse engineering, but it is still challenging to overcome design and materials induced loss channels for on-chip realization. In this Letter, we present a novel architecture of integrated superconducting quantum memory with a dynamically controlled RF-SQUID coupling element in pulse regime, thus ensuring high efficiency storage and cycling storage time. It demonstrates a memory cycle time of 1.51 μs and 57.5(4)% storage fidelity with preservation of the stored pulse shape during the retrieval at single-photon level excitations. We establish that while the proposed active coupler realization introduces no measurable fidelity degradation, the primary limitation arises from impedance matching and materials imperfections. Still the device was used only for storing finite-duration near-single-photon classical microwave pulses, we assert that it operates as a linear device when the photon population in the common resonator remains low so it should be compatible with quantum state storage. The proposed architecture highlights a disruptive potential for on-chip qubit and memory integration for scalable quantum error correction, while identifying specific avenues for near-unity storage fidelity.
Abstract We investigate the non-stationary and relaxation phenomena in cavity-assisted quantum memories for light. As a storage medium we consider an ensemble of cold atoms with standard Lambda-scheme of working levels. Some theoretical aspects of the problem were treated previously by many authors, and recent experiments stimulate more deep insight into the ultimate ability and limitations of the device. Since quantum memories can be used not only for the storage of quantum information, but also for a substantial manipulation of ensembles of quantum states, the speed of such manipulation and hence the ability to write and retrieve the signals of relatively short duration becomes important. In our research we do not apply the so-called bad cavity limit, and consider the memory operation of the signals whose duration is not much larger than the cavity field lifetime, accounting also for the finite lifetime of atomic coherence. In our paper we present an effective approach that makes it possible to find the non-stationary amplitude and phase behavior of strong classical control field, that matches the desirable time profile of both the envelope and the phase of the retrieved quantized signal. The phase properties of the retrieved quantized signals are of importance for the detection and manipulation of squeezing, entanglement, etc by means of optical mixing and homodyning.
We present a new scheme of quantum memory for optical images (spatially multimode light fields) that allows mapping the quantum state of the signal onto the long-lived coherence of the ground state of an ensemble of stationary atoms or impurity centers. The memory medium is embedded in an optical cavity with degenerate transverse modes, which increases the effective optical thickness of the medium and allows one, in principle, to store information in optically thin atomic layers. Since, in reality, storage and retrieval of limited-duration signals, including signals shorter than the lifetime of the field in the cavity, is of interest, we do not use the low- Q cavity approximation. The influence of losses due to partial reflection of the nonstationary signal field incident on a coupling mirror on the storage efficiency is considered. We used the method of approximate impedance matching, wherein losses due to reflection can be minimized by controlling the coupling parameter of the light field with memory medium in time, thus creating conditions for destructive interference of the signal and local fields on the coupling mirror. The influence of diffraction on the transverse resolution of memory at the writing and readout stages is investigated, and the number of effectively stored transverse spatial modes of the signal is estimated.
A quantum memory scheme with a frequency conversion interface has been proposed, where the processes of storage/retrieval of photons in a resonant polyatomic ensemble and single-photon frequency conversion in a nonlinear medium are combined in a single cavity. Compared to independent quantum memory and frequency converter, the proposed approach allows one to avoid unnecessary losses during radiation input/output and to completely overcome the need to match the operating wavelengths and bands of two devices. A solution of the Heisenberg–Langevin equations that describes the cycle of storage followed by retrieval of a single-photon wave packet has been obtained and used to formulate the conditions for achieving a high quantum memory efficiency, in particular, modified impedance matching conditions.
Superconducting 3D microwave cavities offer state-of-the-art coherence times and a well controlled environment for superconducting qubits. In order to realize at the same time fast readout and long-lived quantum information storage, one can couple the qubit both to a low-quality readout and a high-quality storage cavity. However, such systems are bulky compared to their less coherent 2D counterparts. A more compact and scalable approach is achieved by making use of the multimode structure of a 3D cavity. In our work, we investigate such a device where a transmon qubit is capacitively coupled to two modes of a single 3D cavity. The external coupling is engineered so that the memory mode has an about 100 times larger quality factor than the readout mode. Using an all-microwave second-order protocol, we realize a lifetime enhancement of the stored state over the qubit lifetime by a factor of 666 with a ZZZ-fidelity of 82%82\%82%. We also find that this enhancement is not limited by fundamental constraints.