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Physical Review A

Single photon at a configurable quantum-memory-based beam splitter

Xianxin Guo, Yefeng Mei, Shengwang Du

Published Jun 5, 2018• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the demonstration of a configurable coherent quantum-memory-based beam splitter (BS) for a single-photon wave packet making use of laser-cooled $^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms and electromagnetically induced transparency. The single-photon wave packet is converted (stored) into a collective atomic spin state and later retrieved (split) into two nearly opposing directions. The storage time, beam-splitting ratio, and relative phase are configurable and can be dynamically controlled. We experimentally confirm that such a BS preserves the quantum particle nature of the single photon and the coherence between the two split wave packets of the single photon.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.97.063805

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