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arXiv:1907.05555 · Physical Review Research

Quantum storage and manipulation of heralded single photons in atomic memories based on electromagnetically induced transparency

Pin-Ju Tsai, Ya-Fen Hsiao, Ying-Cheng Chen

Published Jul 28, 2020• 27 citations
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Abstract

This paper demonstrates the storage and manipulation of heralded single photons generated from a cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion source in atomic memories based on electromagnetically induced transparency. By varying the intensity of the coupling beam during retrieval process, the authors show that the waveform, bandwidth, and nonclassical correlation of the heralded single photons can be manipulated.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.2.033155

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This paper demonstrates the storage and manipulation of heralded single photons generated from a cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion source in atomic memories based on electromagnetically induced transparency. By varying the intensity of the coupling beam during retrieval process, the authors show that the waveform, bandwidth, and nonclassical correlation of the heralded single photons can be manipulated.
Quantum memories, for storing then retrieving photonic quantum states on demand, are crucial components for scalable quantum technologies. Spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) with a nonlinear crystal is the most widely used process for generating entangled photon pairs or heralded single photons. Despite the desirability of efficient quantum memories for SPDC-generated single photons, the storage and retrieval efficiencies achieved with this approach still fall below 50%, a threshold value for practical applications. Here, we report an efficiency of > 70% for the storage of heralded single photons generated by cavity-enhanced SPDC using atomic quantum memories based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). In addition, we demonstrate the quantum memory for single-photon polarization qubits with a fidelity of ∼96%. This result paves the way towards the development of large-scale quantum networks.
Optical quantum memories are important components in the long-distance quantum communication based on quantum repeater protocol. To outperform the direct transmission of light with quantum repeaters, it is crucial to develop quantum memories with high fidelity, high efficiency and long storage time. Recently, we demonstrate that it is feasible to achieve a high storage efficiency of 92% for electromagnetically-induced-transparency (EIT)-based memory with weak coherent signal pulses in cold atomic ensembles [1]. To realize the highly-efficient memory with quantum light, we have built a bright and narrowband photon-pair source which can be locked to atomic transition based on the cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down conversion [2]. Here, we present our results on the storage of single photons generated by such a source in EIT-based memories. A storage efficiency of 36% is obtained in initial runs. Future improvements toward a high efficiency are discussed. Such a development paves the way for the applications of photon-pair-based quantum repeater and multi-photon synchronization.
We interface a spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) crystal and a cold atomic ensemble and demonstrate a highly efficient quantum memory through polarization-encoded single-photon qubits. Specifically, narrowband heralded single photons from a cavity-enhanced SPDC source is stored using cold atomic ensemble, with ~70% storage-and-retrieval efficiency and ~10μμμs storage time at 50% efficiency. To prevent the degradation after storage, we also manipulate the single-photon wave profile so that the retrieved non-classical nature of single photon is preserved. On the other hand, the dual-rail storage is used for storing polarization-encoded qubits, and the corrected fidelity of flying qubits after storage reaches ~97%. The results pave the way toward large-scale quantum network.
We report the generation of heralded single photons with Gaussian-shape temporal waveforms through the spatial light modulation technique in an atomic ensemble. Both the full width at half maximum and the peak position of the Gaussian waveform can be controlled while the single photon nature holds well. We also analyze the bandwidth of the generated single photons in frequency domain and show how the sidebands of the frequency spectrum are modified by the shape of the temporal waveform. The generated single photons are especially suited for the realization of high efficiency quantum storage based on electromagnetically induced transparency.
We report on experiments demonstrating the reversible mapping of heralded single photons to long-lived collective optical atomic excitations stored in a Pr3+:Y2SiO5 crystal. A cavity-enhanced spontaneous down-conversion source is employed to produce widely nondegenerate narrow-band (≈2 MHz) photon pairs. The idler photons, whose frequency is compatible with telecommunication optical fibers, are used to herald the creation of the signal photons, compatible with the Pr3+ transition. The signal photons are stored and retrieved using the atomic frequency comb protocol. We demonstrate storage times up to 4.5 μs while preserving nonclassical correlations between the heralding and the retrieved photon. This is more than 20 times longer than in previous realizations in solid state devices, and implemented in a system ideally suited for the extension to spin-wave storage.