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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Combining Quantum Cryptographic Primitives with Highly-Efficient Cold-Atom-Based Quantum Memory

Hadriel Mamann, Thomas Nieddu, Mathieu Bozzio, Félix Hoffet, Félix Garreau de Loubresse, Eleni Diamanti, Alban Urvoy, Julien Laurat

Published Jun 26, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In order to build long-distance quantum communications, quantum memories are required as a synchronization tool which allows entanglement to be stored and retrieved on-demand, when the system is ready to perform entanglement swapping [1]. The storage-and-retrieval efficiency is a key parameter: an increase from 60% to 90% drastically decreases, typically by 2 orders of magnitude, the average time for entanglement distribution over a distance of 600 kilometers. Within this context, we reported quantum transfer between light and cold-atom-based quantum memory featuring a single mode storage-and-retrieval efficiency as high as 87%(±5%), in the single excitation regime [2]. Moreover, we demonstrated the storage of single-photon entanglement into two memories, with a ratio of the input and output concurrences reaching 88%, a more than three-fold increase compared to prior works (Fig. 1). The demonstrated capability required operating at a very large optical depth (OD) of the atomic ensembles on the$D_{1}$line of cesium, and with a strong and preserved suppression of the two-photon component.

DOI
10.1109/cleo/europe-eqec57999.2023.10231784

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Quantum memories are an essential building block for quantum information science, and in particular for the implementation of quantum communications across long distances. A quantum memory is defined as a system capable of storing and retrieving quantum states on-demand, such as quantum bits (qubits). Atomic ensembles are good candidates for this purpose because they enables strong light-matter coupling in case of a large number of atoms. Moreover, the collective effect, enhanced in the regime of large optical depth, can lead to storage efficiency close to unity. Thus, in this thesis, a large magneto-optical trap for cesium atoms is used as a atomic medium in order to implement a quantum memory protocol based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). First, the EIT phenomenon is studied through a criterion for the discrimination between the EIT and the Autler-Townes splitting models. We then report on the implementation of an EIT-based memory for photonic qubits encoded in orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light. A reversible memory for Laguerre-Gaussian modes is implemented, and we demonstrate that the optical memory preserves the handedness of the helical structure at the single-photon level. Then, a full quantum state tomography of the retrieved OAM encoded qubits is performed, giving fidelities above the classical bound. This showed that our optical memory operates in the quantum regime. Finally, we present the implementation of the so-called DLCZ protocol in our ensemble of cold atoms, enabling the generation of heralded single photons. A homodyne detection setup allows us to realize the quantum tomography of the created photonic state.
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