Quantum and Nonlinear Optics with Hard X-Rays

Ralf Röhlsberger, Jörg Evers, S. Shwartz

Ralf Röhlsberger, Jörg Evers, S. Shwartz

Wen-Te Liao

Optical Echo Holography, E. I. Shtyrkov

Wang, G., Liao, W.

We theoretically investigate a scheme for the generation of single hard-x-ray pulses of controllable duration in the range of 1–100 ns from a radioactive Mössbauer source. The scheme uses a magnetically perturbed 57FeBO3 crystal illuminated with recoilless 14.4-keV photons from a 57Co radioisotope nuclide. Such a compact x-ray source is useful for the extension of quantum optics to the 10-keV energy scale, which has been in the spotlight in recent years. So far, experimental achievements have mostly been attained in synchrotron radiation facilities. However, the use of tabletop and portable hard-x-ray sources for time-resolved measurements and for implementing coherent control over nuclear quantum-optics systems has still been limited. The availability of compact hard-x-ray sources may become the engine for the application of quantum-information schemes down to the subatomic scale. We demonstrate that the present method is versatile and provides an economic solution, utilizing a Mössbauer source, to perform time-resolved nuclear scattering, to produce suitable pulses for photon storage, and to flexibly generate x-ray single-photon entanglement.

Sven Velten, Lars Bocklage, Xiwen Zhang +8 more

Optical quantum memories are key elements in modern quantum technologies to reliably store and retrieve quantum information. At present, they are conceptually limited to the optical wavelength regime. Recent advancements in x-ray quantum optics render an extension of optical quantum memory protocols to ultrashort wavelengths possible, thereby establishing quantum photonics at x-ray energies. Here, we introduce an x-ray quantum memory protocol that utilizes mechanically driven nuclear resonant 57 Fe absorbers to form a comb structure in the nuclear absorption spectrum by using the Doppler effect. This room-temperature nuclear frequency comb enables us to control the waveform of x-ray photon wave packets to a high level of accuracy and fidelity using solely mechanical motions. This tunable, robust, and highly flexible system offers a versatile platform for a compact solid-state quantum memory at room temperature for hard x-rays.