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arXiv:1309.0613 · Physical Review A

Adiabatic passage in photon-echo quantum memories

G. Demeter

Published Nov 15, 2013• 8 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Photon-echo-based quantum memories use inhomogeneously broadened, optically thick ensembles of absorbers to store a weak optical signal and employ various protocols to rephase the atomic coherences for information retrieval. We study the application of two consecutive, frequency-chirped control pulses for coherence rephasing in an ensemble with a ``natural'' inhomogeneous broadening. Although propagation effects distort the two control pulses differently, chirped pulses that drive adiabatic passage can rephase atomic coherences in an optically thick storage medium. Combined with spatial phase-mismatching techniques to prevent primary echo emission, coherences can be rephased around the ground state to achieve secondary echo emission with close to unit efficiency. Potential advantages over similar schemes working with $\ensuremath{\pi}$ pulses include greater potential signal fidelity, reduced noise due to spontaneous emission, and better capability for the storage of multiple memory channels.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.88.052316

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Photon-echo-based quantum memories use inhomogeneously broadened, optically thick ensembles of absorbers to store a weak optical signal and employ various protocols to rephase the atomic coherences for information retrieval. We study the application of two consecutive, frequency-chirped control pulses for coherence rephasing in an ensemble with a ``natural'' inhomogeneous broadening. Although propagation effects distort the two control pulses differently, chirped pulses that drive adiabatic passage can rephase atomic coherences in an optically thick storage medium. Combined with spatial phase-mismatching techniques to prevent primary echo emission, coherences can be rephased around the ground state to achieve secondary echo emission with close to unit efficiency. Potential advantages over similar schemes working with \ensuremathπ\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremathπ pulses include greater potential signal fidelity, reduced noise due to spontaneous emission, and better capability for the storage of multiple memory channels.
Photon-echo based optical quantum memory schemes often employ intermediate steps to transform optical coherences to spin coherences for longer storage times. We analyze a scheme that uses three identical chirped control pulses for coherence rephasing in an inhomogeneously broadened ensemble of three-level $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ systems. The pulses induce a cyclic permutation of the atomic populations in the adiabatic regime. Optical coherences created by a signal pulse are stored as spin coherences at an intermediate time interval, and are rephased for echo emission when the ensemble is returned to the initial state. Echo emission during a possible partial rephasing when the medium is inverted can be suppressed with an appropriate choice of control pulse wave vectors. We demonstrate that the scheme works in an optically dense ensemble, despite control pulse distortions during propagation. It integrates conveniently the spin-wave storage step into memory schemes based on a second rephasing of the atomic coherences.
Photon echo (PE) techniques offer a promising approach to optical quantum memory, yet their implementation in conventional platforms, such as rare-earth-ion-doped crystals, is hindered by limited bandwidths. Semiconductor quantum dot (QD) ensembles, featuring THz-scale inhomogeneous broadening and sub-picosecond dynamics, provide an attractive alternative for ultrafast applications. However, achieving coherent control across such broad spectral ranges remains challenging due to detuning and spatial field inhomogeneities, which reduce PE efficiency. In this work, we demonstrate that chirped rephasing pulses satisfying adiabatic conditions enable robust adiabatic rapid passage (ARP) across an inhomogeneously broadened InAs QD ensemble. This approach achieves uniform population inversion and broadband rephasing, overcoming the limitations of transform-limited excitation. Experimentally, we observe a 3.2-fold enhancement of the PE signal in dense, self-assembled InAs QDs operating at telecom wavelengths. Numerical simulations based on a two-level model reproduce the experimentally observed ARP-induced enhancement, validating the underlying physical mechanism. These results establish ARP as an effective and scalable method for coherent control in THz-broadened QD ensembles, opening a pathway toward ultrafast and broadband optical quantum memory and communication in the telecom band.
Over the last two decades, quantum memories have been intensively studied for potential applications of quantum repeaters in quantum networks. Various protocols have also been developed. To satisfy no noise echoes caused by spontaneous emission processes, a conventional two-pulse photon-echo scheme has been modified. The resulting methods include double-rephasing, ac Stark, dc Stark, controlled echo, and atomic frequency comb methods. In these methods, the main purpose of modification is to remove any chance of a population residual on the excited state during the rephasing process. Here, we investigate a typical Gaussian rephasing pulse-based double-rephasing photon-echo scheme. For a complete understanding of the coherence leakage by the Gaussian pulse itself, ensemble atoms are thoroughly investigated for all temporal components of the Gaussian pulse, whose maximum echo efficiency is 26% in amplitude, which is unacceptable for quantum memory applications.
A photonic quantum memory that can store multiple qubits and later recall any randomly chosen subset is essential for large-scale quantum networking and computing. This capability, similar to random-access memory in classical computers, has been difficult to achieve due to the lack of a versatile random-access mechanism and the limited multi-mode storage capacity of existing quantum memory protocols. One promising route uses photon-echo protocols, which apply optical rephasing pulses to selectively read out frequency-multiplexed photonic qubits within a broadened optical transition. Here we advance a photon-echo-based quantum memory protocol using linearly swept adiabatic rephasing pulses, which imprint phase shifts to suppress unwanted echoes. Using the optical transitions of a 171Yb3+:Y2SiO5 crystal, we demonstrate storage and retrieval of multiple complex spectro-temporal photonic modes and achieve random-access memory across eight distinct spectral modes. We show enhanced mode-mapping versatility while substantially lowering the required rephasing pulse intensity, providing a more efficient and reliable approach for high-fidelity qubit storage and retrieval. Scalable quantum networks require memories that store photonic qubits while allowing selective access to individual states, a capability not currently available. A chirped-pulse phase-encoding approach provides random access to spectro-temporal-multiplexed information, enabling storage and retrieval across eight spectral modes with lower rephasing pulse intensity.
We propose an original quantum memory protocol. It belongs to the class of rephasing processes and is closely related to two-pulse photon echo. It is known that the strong population inversion produced by the rephasing pulse prevents the plain two-pulse photon echo from serving as a quantum memory scheme. Indeed, gain and spontaneous emission generate prohibitive noise. A second π-pulse can be used to simultaneously reverse the atomic phase and bring the atoms back into the ground state. Then a secondary echo is radiated from a non-inverted medium, avoiding contamination by gain and spontaneous emission noise. However, one must kill the primary echo, in order to preserve all the information for the secondary signal. In the present work, spatial phase mismatching is used to silence the standard two-pulse echo. An experimental demonstration is presented.
The photon-echo quantum memory is based on a controlled rephasing of the atomic coherence excited by a signal light field in the inhomogeneously broadened resonant line. Here, we demonstrate an active mechanism of the atomic rephasing that provides a perfect retrieval of the stored light field in the photon-echo quantum memory based on the use of arbitrary initial inhomogeneous broadening of the resonant line. We show that the rephasing mechanism can exploit all resonant atoms, thereby maximally increasing an optical depth of the resonant transition, which is one of the critical parameters for the realization of highly efficient quantum memory. We also demonstrate that the rephasing mechanism can be used for various realizations of the photon-echo quantum memory, thereby creating many possibilities for its practical realization.