Physica Scripta
Heralded atomic-ensemble quantum memory for photon polarization states
Haruka Tanji, Jonathan Simon, Saikat Ghosh, Benjamin Bloom, Vladan Vuletić
Abstract
We describe the mapping of quantum states between single photons and an atomic ensemble. In particular, we demonstrate a heralded quantum memory based on the mapping of a photon polarization state onto a single collective-spin excitation (magnon) shared between two atomic ensembles. The polarization fidelity above 90(2)% for any input polarization far exceeds the classical limit of \frac{2}{3} . The process also constitutes a quantum non-destructive probe that detects and regenerates a photon without measuring its polarization.