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arXiv:2008.04675

Single-Photon Stored-Light Interferometry

Yuechun Jiao, Nicholas L. R. Spong, Oliver D. W. Hughes, Chloe So, Teodora Ilieva, Kevin J. Weatherill, Charles S. Adams

Published Aug 1, 2020• 0 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate a single-photon stored-light interferometer, where a photon is stored in a laser-cooled atomic ensemble in the form of a Rydberg polariton with a spatial extent of 10×1×1 μm3. The photon is subject to a Ramsey sequence, i.e. ‘split’ into a super-position of two paths. After a delay of up to 450 ns, the two paths are recombined to give an output dependent on their relative phase.The superposition time of 450 ns is equivalent to a free-space propagation distance of 135 m. We show that the interferometer fringes are sensitive to external fields, and suggesting that stored-light interferometry could be useful for localized sensing applications.

DOI
10.15128/r18k71nh124

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We demonstrate a single-photon stored-light interferometer, where a photon is stored in a laser-cooled atomic ensemble in the form of a Rydberg polariton with a spatial extent of 10×1×1 μm3. The photon is subject to a Ramsey sequence, i.e. ‘split’ into a super-position of two paths. After a delay of up to 450 ns, the two paths are recombined to give an output dependent on their relative phase.The superposition time of 450 ns is equivalent to a free-space propagation distance of 135 m. We show that the interferometer fringes are sensitive to external fields, and suggesting that stored-light interferometry could be useful for localized sensing applications.
We demonstrate a single-photon stored-light interferometer, where a photon is stored in a laser-cooled atomic ensemble in the form of a Rydberg polariton with a spatial extent of 10 × 1 × 1 µ m 3 . The photon is subject to a Ramsey sequence, i.e., “split” into a superposition of two paths. After a delay of up to 450 ns, the two paths are recombined to give an output dependent on their relative phase. The superposition time of 450 ns is equivalent to a free-space propagation distance of 135 m. We show that the interferometer fringes are sensitive to external fields and suggest that stored-light interferometry could be useful for localized sensing applications.
We demonstrate a robust single-photon Ramsey interferometer based on a single Rydberg excitation, where the photon is stored as a Rydberg polariton in an ensemble of atoms. This coherent conversion of the photon to Rydberg polariton enables to split an incoming photon into a superposition state of two Rydberg states by applying microwave fields, which constructs two paths of interferometer. Ramsey interference fringes are demonstrated when we scan either the detuning of the microwave or the free evolution time, from which we can obtain the resonant transition frequency of two Rydberg states. We use the Ramsey-like sequence to demonstrate coherent manipulation of the stored single-photon to construct different interference patterns. In addition, the robustness of the Ramsey interferometer to the fluctuation of incoming photon numbers and optical depth (OD) of the atomic ensemble is tested, showing that the coherent of Ramsey interferometer is preserved for input photon number in a range of R in < 15 and for OD varying from 1.0 to 4.0. The robust interferometer will find its applications in quantum precision measurement.
Qutrit with highly efficient algorithms and security is imperative in quantum information processing. Here, we demonstrate for the first time the coherent creation, control, and readout of a single photonic qutrit in a cold Rydberg ensemble. In each measurement, an optical photon is stored as a Rydberg polariton through electromagnetically induced transparency. Employing two microwave fields, the polariton is driven into an arbitrary superposition of three collective states, each encoded in a Rydberg state. The collective state is mapped into a photonic time-bin qutrit with the microwave field and read out sequentially. The complete sequence, including preparation, control, and readout, is less than 1.8 µ s , which mitigates decoherence significantly. We measure the coherence of the qutrit with nondestructive Ramsey interferometry, which is preferable for quantum information processing, and find good quantitative agreement with the theoretical model. The ability to write, process, and read out the single photonic qutrit on microsecond timescales with microwave-coupled Rydberg states demonstrates the coherent connectivity among the high Hilbert space of the qutrit. Our study is an important step in exploring qutrit-based quantum information processes and quantum simulation of topological physics with microwave-coupled Rydberg atom ensembles.
We present results on a free-space atom interferometer operating on the first order magnetically insensitive |F = 1,mF = 0) --> |F = 2,mF = 0) ground state transition of Bose-condensed (87)Rb atoms. A pulsed atom laser is output-coupled from a Bose-Einstein condensate and propagates through a sequence of two internal state beam splitters, realized via coherent Raman transitions between the two interfering states. We observe Ramsey fringes with a visibility close to 100% and determine the current and the potentially achievable interferometric phase sensitivity. This system is well suited to testing recent proposals for generating and detecting squeezed atomic states.
Rb atoms. When two photons with different wavelengths are incident on a polarization-based Michelson interferometer, two kinds of two-photon superposition states, the frequency-entangled state and dichromatic path-entangled state depending on whether the two photons are in different paths or in the same path, are probabilistically generated within the interferometer arms. Hong-Ou-Mandel-type interference fringes resulting from the frequency-entangled state are observed over the range of the single-photon coherence length, following introduction of a coarse path-length difference between the two interferometer arms and employing phase randomization. When the interferometer is highly phase-sensitive without phase randomization, a phase super-resolved fringe arising from the dichromatic path-entangled state is observed, both with and without the accompanying one-photon interference fringes.
We demonstrate a novel type of cesium atom interferometer which uses a combination of a microwave ground state transition and momentum changing adiabatic transfer light pulses as the atom optical components. It is the first atom interferometer where the mechanism which forms the internal superposition plays no part in spatially splitting the atomic wave packets. The coherence length of the atom source is found by measuring the spatial correlation between the two interferometer arms. This allows us to determine the temperature of the atomic ensemble.