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arXiv:2609.12633

Travelling Dark State Polariton as a Viable Quantum Memory in a Solid-State Medium

Avirup Chakraborty, Shrabana Chakrabarti

quant-phSubmitted Sep 11, 2026• Announced Sep 14, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We theorize a quantum memory based on the dark-state polariton field, formed by the superposition of atomic and photonic states of a travelling probe laser pulse under the application of standing wave modes of a dominant control laser pulse using a lambda-level scheme Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in a solid medium. We show how an enhancement in the storage time for the pulse is achieved by eliminating pulse broadening due to diffusion. At last, we propose an experiment that can help realize the storage of a probe pulse in the hyperfine levels $^3\text{H}_4 \leftrightarrow ^1\text{D}_2$ of $\text{Pr}^{3+}:\text{Y}_2\text{SiO}_5$, cryogenically cooled at $4.5\text{ K}$. We also discuss multiple applications the storage of the quantum states the probe pulse with a prolonged time interval must have.

Comments
BibTeX, Version 0.99d (MiKTeX 25.4), 11 pages with 5 figures, presented at National Conference on Nanotechnology, Material Science, and Advanced Optics 2025, Sister Nivedita University, Kolkata, India

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We theorize a quantum memory based on the dark-state polariton field, formed by the superposition of atomic and photonic states of a travelling probe laser pulse under the application of standing wave modes of a dominant control laser pulse using a lambda-level scheme Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in a solid medium. We show how an enhancement in the storage time for the pulse is achieved by eliminating pulse broadening due to diffusion. At last, we propose an experiment that can help realize the storage of a probe pulse in the hyperfine levels 3H4↔1D2^3\text{H}_4 \leftrightarrow ^1\text{D}_23H4​↔1D2​ of Pr3+:Y2SiO5\text{Pr}^{3+}:\text{Y}_2\text{SiO}_5Pr3+:Y2​SiO5​, cryogenically cooled at 4.5 K4.5\text{ K}4.5 K. We also discuss multiple applications the storage of the quantum states the probe pulse with a prolonged time interval must have.
In this paper, we derive an expression for the dark-state polariton field, formed by the superposition of atomic and photonic states, for the case of a travelling probe laser pulse under the application of a standing wave control laser pulse for a lambda-level scheme EIT System in a solid crystal. We show how an enhancement in the nonlinearity of the EIT process by eliminating pulse broadening due to diffusion can be achieved in the case of a travelling probe pulse under the effect of standing wave control laser pulses. At last, we propose an experiment that can help realise the storage of a probe pulse in the hyperfine levels 3 H 4 ↔ 1 D 2 of Pr 3+ : Y 2 SiO 5, cryogenically cooled at 4.5 K. We, at last, predict from the temporal variation of the energy density of the stored probe pulse that a longer storage time of the travelling probe pulse is possible for a perfect standing wave control laser field than a non-standing control wave, due to its more prominent nonlinear effect.
We study the influence of a lossless material medium on the coherent storage and quantum-state transfer of a quantized probe light in an ensemble of $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atoms. The medium is modeled as uniformly distributed two-level atoms with the same energy level spacing, coupling to a probe light. This coupled system can be simplified to a collection of two-mode polaritons which couple to one transition of the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atoms. We show that, when the other transition of $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atoms is controlled by a classical light, electromagnetically induced transparency can also occur for the polaritons. In this case the coherent storage and quantum transfer for photon states are achievable through novel dark states with respect to the polaritons. By calculating the corresponding dispersion relation, we find that the ensemble of three-level atoms with $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type transitions may serve as quantum memory for it slows or even stops light propagation through the mechanism of electromagnetically induced transparency.
We investigate light storage by electromagnetically induced transparency in a Pr3+{}^{3+}3+:Y2{}_{2}2​SiO5{}_{5}5​ crystal. The retrieval efficiency versus storage time shows pronounced oscillations, which are due to beating of dark-state polaritons in multiple Zeeman-shifted $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ systems. As a significant obstacle for applications, the beating leads to periodic collapses of the retrieved signal. We demonstrate how to systematically control the perturbing oscillations in the retrieval efficiency by external magnetic fields. This enables suppression of collapses and retrieval of stored data at any storage time, approaching the limit set by the coherence time in the medium.
We observe dark-state polariton collapses and revivals in a quantum memory based on electromagnetically induced transparency on a cloud of cold cesium atoms in a magnetic field. Using ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{+}$-polarized signal and control beams in the direction of the magnetic field, we suppress the dark-state polariton collapses by polarizing the atoms towards one of the stretched Zeeman states and optimizing the frequency detuning of the control beam. In this way, we demonstrate a quantum memory with only partial dark-state polariton collapses, making the memory usable at any storage time, not only at discretized times of revivals. We obtain a storage time of more than 400 $\textmu{}\mathrm{s}$, which is ten times longer than what we can achieve by trying to annul the magnetic field.
An ideal and reversible transfer technique for the quantum state between light and metastable collective states of matter is presented and analyzed in detail. The method is based on the control of photon propagation in coherently driven three-level atomic media, in which the group velocity is adiabatically reduced to zero. Form-stable coupled excitations of light and matter (``dark-state polaritons'') associated with the propagation of quantum fields in electromagnetically induced transparency are identified, their basic properties discussed and their application for quantum memories for light analyzed.
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