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arXiv:1304.2264 · Physical Review A

Fidelity of photon propagation in electromagnetically induced transparency in the presence of four-wave mixing

Nikolai Lauk, Christopher O’Brien, Michael Fleischhauer

Published Jul 15, 2013• 68 citations
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Abstract

We study the effects of four-wave mixing (4WM) in a quantum memory scheme based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We treat the problem of field propagation on the quantum mechanical level, which allows us to calculate the fidelity of propagation for a quantum light pulse such as a single photon. While 4WM can be beneficial for classical, all-optical information storage, the quantum noise associated with the signal amplification and idler generation is, in general, detrimental for a quantum memory. We identify a range of parameters where 4WM makes a single-photon quantum memory impossible.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.88.013823

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We study the effects of four-wave mixing (4WM) in a quantum memory scheme based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We treat the problem of field propagation on the quantum mechanical level, which allows us to calculate the fidelity of propagation for a quantum light pulse such as a single photon. While 4WM can be beneficial for classical, all-optical information storage, the quantum noise associated with the signal amplification and idler generation is, in general, detrimental for a quantum memory. We identify a range of parameters where 4WM makes a single-photon quantum memory impossible.
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Storing light based on the effect of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) provides a coherent way to transfer wave functions between photons and matters. The storage device is promising for the application of quantum memory. An important figure of merit for optical memory is fidelity, which can be degraded by either a two-photon detuning or an axial magnetic field gradient in the EIT scheme. We systematically studied the phase of readout light pulses with the beat-note interferometer. The detuning induces a nonuniform phase variation during the pulse propagation and a uniform phase shift during the light storage; in addition, the field gradient induces a nonuniform phase variation during the storage. We further demonstrated that the phase measurement can be used to diagnose a two-photon detuning below 10 kHz (or 1/600 of the excited-state natural linewidth) and a magnetic field gradient as low as 2 mG/cm. The fidelity of the readout pulse from the EIT memory can be achieved to 0.94. Our work provides useful information for practical applications of EIT-based quantum memory and advances the knowledge of EIT-related research fields.
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The recent prospect of efficient, reliable, and secure quantum communication relies on the ability to coherently and reversibly map nonclassical states of light onto long-lived atomic states. A promising technique that accomplishes this employs Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT), in which a strong classical control field modifies the optical properties of a weak signal field in such a way that a previously opaque medium becomes transparent to the signal field. The accompanying steep dispersion in the index of refraction allows for pulses of light to be decelerated, then stored as an atomic excitation, and later retrieved as a photonic mode. This dissertation presents the results of investigations into methods for optimizing the memory efficiency of this process in an ensemble of hot Rb atoms. We have experimentally demonstrated the effectiveness of two protocols for yielding the best memory efficiency possible at a given atomic density. Improving memory efficiency requires operation at higher optical depths, where undesired effects such as four-wave mixing (FWM) become enhanced and can spontaneously produce a new optical mode (Stokes field). We present the results of experimental and theoretical investigations of the FWM-EIT interaction under continuous-wave (cw), slow light, and stored light conditions. In particular, we provide evidence that indicates that while a Stokes field is generated upon retrieval of the signal field, any information originally encoded in a seeded Stokes field is not independently preserved during the storage process. We present a simple model that describes the propagation dynamics and provides an intuitive description of the EIT-FWM process.
We present a quantum multi-modal treatment describing Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) as a mechanism for storing continuous variable quantum information in light fields. Taking into account the atomic noise and decoherences of realistic experiments, we model numerically the propagation, storage, and readout of signals contained in the sideband amplitude and phase quadratures of a light pulse. An analytical treatment of the effects predicted by this more sophisticated model is then presented. Finally, we use quantum information benchmarks to examine the properties of the EIT-based memory and show the parameters needed to operate beyond the quantum limit.