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arXiv:1903.10922 · Physical Review A

Nonadiabatic storage of short light pulses in an atom-cavity system

Tobias Macha, Eduardo Uruñuela, Wolfgang Alt, Maximilian Ammenwerth, Deepak Pandey, Hannes Pfeifer, Dieter Meschede

Published May 4, 2020• 15 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate the storage of 5-ns light pulses in a single rubidium atom coupled to a fiber-based optical resonator. Our storage protocol addresses a regime beyond the conventional adiabatic limit and approaches the theoretical bandwidth limit. We extract the optimal control laser pulse properties from a numerical simulation of our system and measure storage efficiencies of $(8.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.1)%$, in close agreement with the maximum expected efficiency. Such well-controlled and high-bandwidth atom-photon interfaces are key components for future hybrid quantum networks.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.101.053406

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•Jan 1, 2007•0 citations
We demonstrate the storage of 5-ns light pulses in a single rubidium atom coupled to a fiber-based optical resonator. Our storage protocol addresses a regime beyond the conventional adiabatic limit and approaches the theoretical bandwidth limit. We extract the optimal control laser pulse properties from a numerical simulation of our system and measure storage efficiencies of (8.1\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi1.1)(8.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.1)%(8.1\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi1.1), in close agreement with the maximum expected efficiency. Such well-controlled and high-bandwidth atom-photon interfaces are key components for future hybrid quantum networks.
Ideal photonic quantum memories can store arbitrary pulses of light with unit efficiency. This requires operating in the adiabatic regime, where pulses have a duration much longer than the bandwidth of the memory. In the nonadiabatic regime of short pulses, memories are therefore imperfect, and information is always lost. We theoretically investigate the bandwidth limitations for setups based on individual atoms, or ensembles thereof, confined inside optical cavities. We identify an effective strategy for optimizing the efficiencies of the storage and retrieval process regardless of the duration or the shape of the pulses. Our protocol is derived almost completely analytically and attains efficiencies that are comparable to those obtained by numerical optimization. Furthermore, our results provide an improved understanding of the performance of quantum memories in several regimes. When considering pulses defined on an infinite time interval, the shapes can be divided into two categories, depending on their asymptotic behaviors. If the intensity of the pulse increases with time slower than or as an exponential function then the storage efficiency is only limited by the pulse width. For pulses defined on a finite interval, on the other hand, the efficiency is determined by the shape at the beginning of the storage or, correspondingly, at the end of the retrieval process.
We theoretically analyze the efficiency of a quantum memory for single photons. The photons propagate along a transmission line and impinge on one of the mirrors of a high-finesse cavity. The quantum memory is constituted by a single atom within the optical resonator. Photon storage is realized by the controlled transfer of the photonic excitation into a metastable state of the atom and occurs via a Raman transition with a suitably tailored laser pulse, which drives the atom. Our study is supported by numerical simulations, in which we include the modes of the transmission line and we use the experimental parameters of existing experimental setups. It reproduces the results derived using input–output theory in the corresponding regimes and can be extended to compute dynamics where the input–output formalism cannot be straightforwardly applied. Our analysis determines the maximal storage efficiency, namely, the maximal probability to store the photon in a stable atomic excitation, in the presence of spontaneous decay and cavity parasitic losses. It further delivers the form of the laser pulse that achieves the maximal efficiency by partially compensating parasitic losses. We numerically assess the conditions under which storage based on adiabatic dynamics is preferable to non-adiabatic pulses. Moreover, we systematically determine the shortest photon pulse that can be efficiently stored as a function of the system parameters.
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We derive an optimal control strategy for storage and retrieval of a photon wavepacket of any given shape in a Lambda-type atomic medium with a limited optical depth. The control is provided by an appropriately shaped classical laser field. We present a universal physical picture encompassing different pulse-storage techniques ranging from adiabatic reduction of the photon group velocity and pulse-propagation control via off-resonant Raman fields to photon-echo based approaches. When properly optimized, all three approaches yield identical maximum efficiencies, which only depend on the optical depth of the medium. Extending the model to include Doppler broadening, we find the surprising result that at high enough optical depth all atoms contribute coherently as if the medium were homogeneously broadened.
Tapered optical fibers with a nanofiber waist are versatile tools for interfacing light and matter. In this context, laser-cooled atoms trapped in the evanescent field surrounding the optical nanofiber are of particular interest: They exhibit both long ground-state coherence times and efficient coupling to fiber-guided fields. Here, we demonstrate electromagnetically induced transparency, slow light, and the storage of fiber-guided optical pulses in an ensemble of cold atoms trapped in a nanofiber-based optical lattice. We measure a slow-down of light pulses to group velocities of 50 m/s. Moreover, we store optical pulses at the single photon level and retrieve them on demand in the fiber after 2 microseconds with an overall efficiency of (3.0 +/- 0.4) %. Our results show that nanofiber-based interfaces for cold atoms have great potential for the realization of building blocks for future optical quantum information networks.
Quantum information systems require an interface between photons as a physical system to transport information and atoms which are better suited to store and process it. In this thesis the construction of a novel pulsed, bright and narrow-band light source is presented. It consists of an optical parametric oscillator featuring a periodically poled KTP crystal and a mechanical chopper and produces ?s-pulses of squeezed vacuum. The generated states are resonant to the Rubidium-DI-transition, are almost transform-limited and show more than 3 dB of squeezing. The physical effect of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in hot rubidium vapor can be used to generate ultra-low group velocities and allows for a reversible adiabatic conversion of optical quantum states into collective spin excitations which can be used to stop pulses of light. I report about recent progress in slowing down a pulse of squeezed vacuum by one third of its width while still preserving 0.36 dB of squeezing in the process. I analyze electromagnetically induced transparency and light storage in an ensemble of atoms with multiple excited levels (multi-A configuration) which are coupled to one of the ground states by quantized signal fields and to the other one via classical control fields. A basis transformation of atomic and optical states which reduces the analysis of the system to that of electromagnetically induced transparency in a regular three-level configuration is presented. We demonstrate the existence of dark state polaritons and propose a protocol to transfer quantum information from one optical mode to another by adiabatic control of the control fields and present a proof-of principle experiment to adiabatically transfer light between modes of different frequencies in Rb-87 vapor. To that end a digital phase lock circuit has been designed that allows to electronically phase lock an external-cavity diode laser to a reference laser over a 7 GHz frequency range with sub-Hertz precision.