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Optics Continuum

Efficient operation of atomic frequency comb optical memory using an optical frequency comb in 167 Er 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5

Shoichiro Yasui, Tomohiro Inaba, Atsushi Ishizawa, Kenichi Hitachi, Hiroo Omi, Kyuma Matsuura, Reina Kaji, Takehiko Tawara, S. Adachi, Xuejun Xu, Haruki Sanada

Published Apr 29, 2024• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrated a highly efficient optical memory operation using an atomic frequency comb (AFC) created from a spectrally flattened optical frequency comb with an isotopically pure 167 Er 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5 crystal under zero magnetic field. Compared with standard AFC creation methods such as pulse train method, our method, called comb transfer method, can create a broadband and high-efficiency AFC at lower power and with less effort. This technique can make a significant improvement in the quality of AFCs in crystals doped with low concentrations of rare-earth ions.

DOI
10.1364/optcon.525926

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We demonstrated a highly efficient optical memory operation using an atomic frequency comb (AFC) created from a spectrally flattened optical frequency comb with an isotopically pure 167 Er 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5 crystal under zero magnetic field. Compared with standard AFC creation methods such as pulse train method, our method, called comb transfer method, can create a broadband and high-efficiency AFC at lower power and with less effort. This technique can make a significant improvement in the quality of AFCs in crystals doped with low concentrations of rare-earth ions.
We created high-resolution atomic frequency combs (AFCs) and optimized the pulse sequence used in AFC memory to realize highly efficient AFC quantum memory using the 167 Er 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5 hyperfine level system. As a result, the formation and relaxation times of AFCs were revealed, and AFCs with a resolution of 800 kHz were created by using an appropriate pump light intensity. An efficiency of 0.16% with a memory time of 0.5 µs was achieved even under a zero magnetic field and a 10 ppm Er concentration sample. This result paves the way for realizing highly efficient communication-wavelength AFC quantum memory.
High-efficiency optical storage in rare-earth-ion-doped crystals is challenging because of their typically weak optical absorption,which makes cavity-enhanced memories highly sensitive to parasitic intracavity loss. Here we demonstrate a 90.1(5)% storage efficiency for coherent optical pulses in an impedance-matched cavity atomic-frequency-comb memory based on Eu3+:Y2SiO5. The Brewster-angle configuration of the crystal and fully cryogenic Fabry-Pérot cavity reduce the round-trip intracavity loss to 0.37%. Quantitative modeling shows that further improvement is limited primarily by AFC preparation and its associated dispersive response rather than by residual cavity loss,identifying the principal requirements for further approaching unity efficiency.
We experimentally demonstrate the storage of 1060 temporal modes onto a thulium-doped crystal using an atomic frequency comb (AFC). The comb covers 0.93 GHz defining the storage bandwidth. As compared to previous AFC preparation methods (pulse sequences, i.e. amplitude modulation), we only use frequency modulation to produce the desired optical pumping spectrum. To ensure an accurate spectrally selective optical pumping, the frequency-modulated laser is self-locked on the atomic comb. Our approach is general and should be applicable to a wide range of rare-earth-doped materials in the context of multimode quantum memory.
Long-lived sub-levels of the electronic ground-state manifold of rare-earth ions in crystals can be used as atomic population reservoirs for photon echo-based quantum memories. We measure the dynamics of the Zeeman sub-levels of erbium ions that are doped into a lithium niobate waveguide, finding population lifetimes at cryogenic temperatures down to 0.7 K as long as seconds. Then, using these levels, we prepare and characterize atomic frequency combs (AFCs), which can serve as a memory for quantum light at 1532 nm wavelength. The results allow predicting a 0.1% memory efficiency, limited mainly by unwanted background absorption that we believe to be caused by excitation-induced erbium spin flips and frequency shifting due to two-level systems or non-equilibrium phonons. Hence, while it should be possible to create an AFC-based quantum memory in E r 3 + : T i 4 + : L i N b O 3 , improved crystal growth together with optimized AFC preparation will be required to make it suitable for applications in quantum communication.
Abstract In this work we present an implementation of cavity-assisted atomic frequency comb (AFC) memory protocol in an isotopically pure 143 Nd 3+ :YLiF 4 crystal. We use a tunable confocal Fabry–Perot cavity that is placed inside the cryostat. For a 1 mm thick sample with optical depth of 0.2 we obtain total storage efficiency of 3%, which is a 15-fold enhancement compared to the no cavity case. The memory bandwidth is limited by the inhomogeneous broadening of the optical transition and allows us to store short 30 ns pulses.