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arXiv:0902.2663 · Physical Review A

Spectral hole burning for stopping light

Romain Lauro, T. Chanelière, J.-L. Le Gouët

Published May 1, 2009• 23 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose a protocol for storage and retrieval of photon wave packets in a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atomic medium. This protocol derives from spectral hole burning and takes advantages of the specific properties of solid-state systems at low temperature, such as rare-earth ion-doped crystals. The signal pulse is tuned to the center of the hole that has been burnt previously within the inhomogeneously broadened absorption band. The group velocity is strongly reduced, being proportional to the hole width. This way the optically carried information and energy are carried over to the off-resonance optical dipoles. Storage and retrieval are performed by conversion to and from ground-state Raman coherence by using brief $\ensuremath{\pi}$ pulses. The protocol exhibits some resemblance with the well-known electromagnetically induced transparency process. It also presents distinctive features such as the absence of coupling beam. In this paper we detail the various steps of the protocol, summarize the critical parameters, and theoretically examine the recovery efficiency.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.79.053801

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We propose a protocol for storage and retrieval of photon wave packets in a \ensuremathΛ\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremathΛ-type atomic medium. This protocol derives from spectral hole burning and takes advantages of the specific properties of solid-state systems at low temperature, such as rare-earth ion-doped crystals. The signal pulse is tuned to the center of the hole that has been burnt previously within the inhomogeneously broadened absorption band. The group velocity is strongly reduced, being proportional to the hole width. This way the optically carried information and energy are carried over to the off-resonance optical dipoles. Storage and retrieval are performed by conversion to and from ground-state Raman coherence by using brief \ensuremathπ\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremathπ pulses. The protocol exhibits some resemblance with the well-known electromagnetically induced transparency process. It also presents distinctive features such as the absence of coupling beam. In this paper we detail the various steps of the protocol, summarize the critical parameters, and theoretically examine the recovery efficiency.
We report on light slowing down in a rare earth ion doped crystal by persistent spectral hole burning. The absence of motion of the active ions, the large inhomogeneous broadening, the small homogeneous width and the long lifetime of the hyperfine shelving states make this material convenient for the burning of narrow persistent spectral holes. Since the hole can be burnt long before the arrival of the input signal, there is no need for a strong coupling field, illuminating the sample simultaneously with the input signal, in contrast with procedures such as Electromagnetically Induced Transparency or Coherent Population Oscillations. Analyzing the slowing down process, we point out the role played by off resonance atoms where most of the incoming information is carried over while the pulse is confined within the sample.
We report on light slowing down in a rare-earth-metal-ion-doped crystal by persistent spectral hole burning. The absence of motion of the active ions, the large inhomogeneous broadening, the small homogeneous width, and the long lifetime of the hyperfine shelving states make this material convenient for the burning of narrow persistent spectral holes. Since the hole can be burnt long before the arrival of the input signal, there is no need for a strong-coupling field, illuminating the sample simultaneously with the input signal, in contrast with procedures such as electromagnetically induced transparency or coherent population oscillations. Analyzing the slowing down process, we point out the role played by the off-resonant atom. Most of the incoming information is carried over to off-resonant atoms, while the pulse is confined within the sample. The observed speed-of-light reduction factor exceeds 105{10}^{5}105.
We demonstrate a solid-state spin-wave optical memory based on stopped light in a spectral hole. A long-lived narrow spectral hole is created by optical pumping in the inhomogeneous absorption profile of a Pr3+:Y2SiO5{\mathrm{Pr}}^{3+}:{\mathrm{Y}}_{2}{\mathrm{SiO}}_{5}Pr3+:Y2​SiO5​ crystal. Optical pulses sent through the spectral hole experience a strong reduction of their group velocity and are spatially compressed in the crystal. A short Raman pulse transfers the optical excitation to the spin state before the light pulse exits the crystal, effectively stopping the light. After a controllable delay, a second Raman pulse is sent, which leads to the emission of the stored photons. We reach storage and retrieval efficiencies for bright pulses of up to 3939%39 in a 5-mm-long crystal. We also show that our device works at the single-photon level by storing and retrieving $3\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$-long weak coherent pulses with efficiencies up to 3131%31, demonstrating the most efficient spin-wave solid-state optical memory at the single-photon level so far. We reach an unconditional noise level of $(9\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ photons per pulse in a detection window of $4\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$, leading to a signal-to-noise ratio of $33\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}4$ for an average input photon number of 1, making our device promising for long-lived storage of nonclassical light.
Rare-earth-ion doped materials are studied for a quantum information protocol, controlled reversible inhomogeneous broadening, for storing single photons. Coherence properties of Er-doped silicate optical fibers and Er-doped LiNbO3 waveguiding structures are investigated. Spectral hole burning spectroscopy is performed in Erbium and Neodymium doped crystals and spectral tailoring is demonstrated in Nd³?:YVO4. The preservation of information encoded into the relative phase and amplitudes of optical pulses during storage and retrieval in an optical memory based on stimulated photon echo is demonstrated. Furthermore photon echoes stored in spatially separated optical memories in several temporal modes, are retrieved and then combined at a beam splitter. They show almost perfect interference demonstrating both phase preserving storage and indistinguishability of photon echoes. Finally, we report an interference experiment of spontaneous emission of light from two distant solid-state ensembles of atoms and the resulting high fringe visibility implies that the observed spontaneous emission is coherent.
We study Lambda-type electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in cryogenically-cooled, europium and praseodymium doped yttrium orthosilicate (Eu:YSO and Pr:YSO). We use spectral hole burning techniques to vary the optical inhomogeneous width of the sub-ensemble of atoms participating in the EIT. The effect of inhomogeneous broadening has been studied in the context of Doppler broadened gases, but less so in solids where motional effects are absent and the coherence is not limited by the transit of atoms through the optical field. Rare earth doped crystals, like many solid-state systems, exhibit spectral hole burning in which a narrowband laser field optically pumps atoms to states in the ground manifold that are dark with respect to the applied field, opening up a transparency window that persists after the pumping laser is shuttered. More complex sequences of fields at multiple frequencies can create arbitrary spectral profiles, within bounds set by the particular energy level structure of the atoms. For both Eu:YSO and Pr:YSO, there are three hyperfine ground states and three hyperfine excited states (at zero magnetic field) and all nine transitions are dipole-allowed with varying transition strengths. We use spectral hole-burning techniques to prepare a sub-ensemble of atoms in a particular frequency class and a particular ground spin state, while also pumping atoms out of another ground state to create a Lambda system. We observe the same functional dependence of the EIT width on the optical inhomogeneous width and independently calibrated control field Rabi frequency in both systems.
Atomic ensembles in the form of rare-earth-doped crystals offer significant potential for implementing a quantum memory due to their long coherence lifetimes, enhanced light-matter interaction, and the potential for integration. We use a double Lambda configuration based on hyperfine levels in praseodymium doped yttrium orthosilicate. In this scheme, a probabilistically generated collective excitation of the internal atomic states in the form of a spin-wave is signaled by emission of a Stokes-shifted herald photon via spontaneous Raman scattering. After a storage delay, a read field addresses the appropriate transition, mapping the spin wave back to a photon, resulting in the emission of an anti-Stokes shifted retrieved photon. Momentum conservation, as dictated by phase-matching conditions, ensure that the herald and retrieved photons are emitted in a well-defined spatial modes relative to the co-propagating write and read optical fields. Inhomogeneous broadening of the absorption profile precludes straightforward implementation of the above scheme, and we resort to spectral hole-burning techniques to prepare a sub-ensemble of atoms with a narrow range of optical transition energy in the ground state. Using a second identical crystal, we also implement an optical spectral filter that suppresses the powerful write and read beams, and spontaneous-emission noise, while transmitting the herald and retrieved photons. We report on the second-order optical correlations between the herald and retrieved photons that are the signature of generation and retrieval of a stored spin-wave excitation. Demonstration of such a quantum memory is an enabling step towards distributing entanglement for a quantum repeater scheme.