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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Reversible storage of photon entanglement in thermal atomic ensembles

Tianhui Qiu, Guojian Yang, Min Xie

Published Feb 22, 2013• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We investigate the storage and retrieval of photon entanglement based on electromagnetically induced transparency where atomic thermal motion cannot be neglected. The reversible transfer of entanglement between atomic ensembles and photon modes is described in terms of the dark state generalized to a mixture of entangled collective moving atoms and entangled photon modes. We analyze the retrieval ability of photon entanglement from atomic ensembles with inhomogeneous broadening and find that the scheme in the degenerated and resonant light–atom configuration is almost immune to atomic thermal motion.

DOI
10.1364/josab.30.000687

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In this thesis, we explore the quantum dynamics of light interactions with optically thick collections of atoms. We provide a theoretical description of several recent experiments in which some key operations necessary for the implementation of quantum communication networks are demonstrated. Collective Raman scattering from an atomic ensemble is shown to produce probabilistic entanglement between the polarization of a scattered photon and an associated collective atomic excitation. The predicted correlations agree with experimental observations. We also propose a method to use cascade transitions to produce entanglement between a photon with a frequency in the telecom range (ideal for transmission over optical fibers) and a near infrared photon (ideal for storage in an atomic ensemble), and a description of the experimental demonstration is provided. We also propose and describe the implementation of a deterministic source of single photons.\n\nIn addition, we generalize the theory of dark-state polaritons in ensembles of three level Lambda atoms to account for the nuclear spin degeneracy of alkali atoms. This generalized theory provides a description of the first demonstration of single photon storage and retrieval from atomic ensembles. Additionally, in the presence of a uniform magnetic field, we predict the occurrence of collapses and revivals of the photon retrieval efficiency as a function of storage time within the ensemble. These predictions are in very good agreement with subsequent experimental observations. We also exploit the ability of photon storage to entangle remote atomic qubits.
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We propose a quantum memory protocol based on dynamically changing the resonance frequency of an ensemble of two-level atoms. By sweeping the atomic frequency in an adiabatic fashion, photons are reversibly transferred into atomic coherences. We present a polaritonic description for this type of storage, which shares some similarities with electromagnetically induced transparency based quantum memories. On the other hand the proposed memory is also linked to the gradient echo memory due to the effective spatial gradient that pulses experience in the medium. We discuss a possible implementation of the protocol in hollow-core photonic crystal fibers.
We propose a quantum memory protocol based on dynamically changing the resonance frequency of an ensemble of two-level atoms. By sweeping the atomic frequency in an adiabatic fashion, photons are reversibly transferred into atomic coherences. We present a polaritonic description for this type of storage, which shares some similarities with electromagnetically induced transparency based quantum memories. On the other hand the proposed memory is also linked to the gradient echo memory due to the effective spatial gradient that pulses experience in the medium. We discuss a possible implementation of the protocol in hollow-core photonic crystal fibers.
We examine a quantum memory scheme based on controllable dephasing of atomic coherence of a non-resonant, inhomogeneously broadened Raman transition. We show that it generalizes the physical conditions for time-reversible interaction between light and atomic ensembles from weak to strong fields and from linear to non-linear interactions. We also develop a unified framework for different realizations exploiting either controlled reversible inhomogeneous broadening or atomic frequency combs, and discuss new aspects related to storage and manipulation of quantum states.