Viewpoint: Storing Light in the Dark

Alexander Carmele

Hugues de Riedmatten

Julien Laurat

This design of atomic quantum memory tells us when a pulse of light has been successfully stored and then proceeds to retrieve it without significantly affecting its polarization. The exquisite operation provides a new capability for quantum information networks.

Eric Cornell

Chong Shou, Guoxiang Huang

We show that stable slow-light dark solitons with finite continuous-wave background can be generated in a Λ -type atomic system via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We also show that such dark solitons can be stored and retrieved with high efficiency and fidelity. Moreover, an optical routing of them can be realized via EIT in the system with a double- Λ -type level configuration.

M.G. Payne, L. Deng