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Science

Atomic Memory for Correlated Photon States

Caspar H. van der Wal, Matthew D. Eisaman, Axel André, Ronald Lee Walsworth, David F. Phillips, Alexander S. Zibrov, Mikhail D. Lukin

Published May 22, 2003• 475 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate emission of two quantum-mechanically correlated light pulses with a time delay that is coherently controlled via temporal storage of photonic states in an ensemble of rubidium atoms. The experiment is based on Raman scattering, which produces correlated pairs of spin-flipped atoms and photons, followed by coherent conversion of the atomic states into a different photon beam after a controllable delay. This resonant nonlinear optical process is a promising technique for potential applications in quantum communication.

DOI
10.1126/science.1085946

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We experimentally demonstrate emission of two quantum-mechanically correlated light pulses with a time delay that is coherently controlled via temporal storage of photonic states in an ensemble of rubidium atoms. The experiment is based on Raman scattering, which produces correlated pairs of spin-flipped atoms and photons, followed by coherent conversion of the atomic states into a different photon beam after a controllable delay. This resonant nonlinear optical process is a promising technique for potential applications in quantum communication.
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We report the experimental demonstration of quantum memory for collective atomic states in a far-detuned optical dipole trap. Generation of the collective atomic state is heralded by the detection of a Raman scattered photon and accompanied by storage in the ensemble of atoms. The optical dipole trap provides confinement for the atoms during the quantum storage while retaining the atomic coherence. We probe the quantum storage by cross correlation of the photon pair arising from the Raman scattering and the retrieval of the atomic state stored in the memory. Nonclassical correlations are observed for storage times up to 60 mus.
We show that coherent multiple light scattering, or diffuse light propagation, in a disordered atomic media prepared at ultralow temperatures can be effectively delayed in the presence of a strong control field initiating a stimulated Raman process. On a relatively short time scale, when the atomic system can preserve its configuration and effects of atomic motion can be ignored, the scattered signal pulse, diffusely propagating via multiple coherent scattering through the media, can be stored in the spin subsystem through its stimulated Raman-type conversion into spin coherence. We demonstrate how this mechanism, potentially interesting for developing quantum memories, would work for the example of a coherent light pulse propagating through an alkali-metal atomic vapor under typical conditions attainable in experiments with ultracold atoms.
Superradiance, characterized by the collective, coherent emission of light from an excited ensemble of emitters, generates photonic signals on timescales faster than the natural lifetime of an individual atom. The rapid exchange of coherence between atomic emitters and photonic fields in the superradiant regime enables a fast, broadband quantum memory. We demonstrate this superradiance memory mechanism in an ensemble of cold rubidium atoms and verify that this protocol is suitable for pulses on timescales shorter than the atoms' natural lifetime. Our simulations show that the superradiance memory protocol yields the highest bandwidth storage among protocols in the same system. These high-bandwidth quantum memories provide unique opportunities for fast processing of optical and microwave photonic signals, with applications in large-scale quantum communication and quantum computing technologies.
Spontaneous Raman scattering (SRS) in atomic ensembles provides a promising method to generate spin-wave--photon entangled states. In the past experiments, a spin-wave--photon entangled state was produced via SRS from an atomic ensemble. Here, we report a scheme of simultaneously generating two spin-wave--photon (atom-photon) entangled states in a cold Rb ensemble via SRS. Based on joint Bell-state measurements on the two photons coming from the two atom-photon entangled sources, respectively, we projected the two stored spin waves into a Bell state and then mapped the quantum memory into a polarization-entangled photon pair. Such a polarization-entangled photon pair can be released on demand and thus the presented scheme has potential application in the preparation of large-size photonic entangled states.