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Research Directions Quantum Technologies

Concept for motion sensing using atomic optical memories

Arash Ahmadi, Yağız Murat, Özgür Esat Müstecaplıoğlu, Pei-Chen Kuan, Mustafa Gündoğan, Markus Krutzik

Published Dec 13, 2024• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract By harnessing optical memories based on electromagnetically induced transparency in warm vapors of gaseous alkali metals and cold atomic clouds, this article presents new methods for motion sensing. The proposed scheme for velocimetry can substantially increase the sensitivity of some recent works based on the light-dragging effect in a moving medium, and on the other hand, our proposal, when realized using cold atoms, opens new research questions with regard to limits of light storage in cold atomic clouds. Ultimately, a detailed experimental setup is presented for the realization of the velocimetry scheme using stopped light, which includes considerations for the choice of the medium, laser configuration and control. By investigating the limits of optical memories in motion sensing applications, this research opens up new avenues for employing optical memories beyond applications in quantum information science.

DOI
10.1017/qut.2024.7

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Abstract By harnessing optical memories based on electromagnetically induced transparency in warm vapors of gaseous alkali metals and cold atomic clouds, this article presents new methods for motion sensing. The proposed scheme for velocimetry can substantially increase the sensitivity of some recent works based on the light-dragging effect in a moving medium, and on the other hand, our proposal, when realized using cold atoms, opens new research questions with regard to limits of light storage in cold atomic clouds. Ultimately, a detailed experimental setup is presented for the realization of the velocimetry scheme using stopped light, which includes considerations for the choice of the medium, laser configuration and control. By investigating the limits of optical memories in motion sensing applications, this research opens up new avenues for employing optical memories beyond applications in quantum information science.
Measuring the motion of quantum particles has been playing a significant role in performing high precision inertial sensing and studying fundamental physics.While most of the motion sensing schemes with cold atoms are based on single-particles.In this thesis, a new measuring method of using a collective state of atoms for motion quantum sensing is introduced.Two experiments were demonstrated to investigate its feasibility.One is related to the light-dragging effect in an electromagnetically induced transparent (EIT) cold 85 Rb atomic ensemble.The dragging coefficient F d was enhanced to 1.67 × 10 5 , which was three orders of magnitude better than the previous experiments.With a large enhancement of the dragging effect, we realised an atom-based velocimeter that has a sensitivity of 1 mm/s, which was two orders of magnitude higher than the velocity width of the atomic medium used before.Such a demonstration could pave the way for motion sensing using the collective state of atoms in a room temperature vapour cell or solid-state material.Another experiment is related to the motion sensing in a driven periodic potential.The motion of the atomic ensemble undergoing Bloch oscillation was measured using the light dragging method.In order to have efficient Bloch oscillation of atoms, the first Raman sideband cooling of 85 Rb to pre-cool atomic ensemble close to the recoil temperature (357 nK) was achieved by us.The phase shift measurements showed the linear-like relation to the accelerating time with the data precision 0.00036 rad (0.005 ns, 0.7 mm/s), instead of the stepwise oscillation period τ B .To observe the stepwise motion, it is required to reduce the lattice field intensity and implement the velocity selection technique to select atoms with a narrow velocity width.
As one of the most influential experiments on the development of modern macroscopic theory from Newtonian mechanics to Einstein's special theory of relativity, the phenomenon of light dragging in a moving medium has been discussed and observed extensively in different types of systems. To have a significant dragging effect, the long duration of light travelling in the medium is preferred. Here we demonstrate a light-dragging experiment in an electromagnetically induced transparent cold atomic ensemble and enhance the dragging effect by at least three orders of magnitude compared with the previous experiments. With a large enhancement of the dragging effect, we realize an atom-based velocimeter that has a sensitivity two orders of magnitude higher than the velocity width of the atomic medium used. Such a demonstration could pave the way for motional sensing using the collective state of atoms in a room temperature vapour cell or solid state material.
Reversible and coherent storage of light in an atomic medium is a promising method with possible applications in many fields. In this work, arbitrary two-dimensional images are slowed and stored in warm atomic vapor for up to 30 micros, utilizing electromagnetically induced transparency. Both the intensity and the phase patterns of the optical field are maintained. The main limitation on the storage resolution and duration is found to be the diffusion of atoms. A technique analogous to phase-shift lithography is employed to diminish the effect of diffusion on the visibility of the reconstructed image.
We provide an exact analytic description of decelerating, stopping and re-accelerating optical solitons in atomic media. By virtue of this solution we describe in detail how spatially localized optical memory bits can be written down, read and moved along the atomic medium in a prescribed manner. Dynamical control over the solitons is realized via a background laser field whose intensity controls the velocity of the slow light in a similar way as in the linear theory of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We solve the nonlinear model when the controlling field and the solitons interact in an inseparable nonlinear superposition process. This allows us to access results beyond the limits of the linear theory of EIT.
Abstract This paper reviews recent efforts to realize a high‐efficiency memory for optical pulses using slow and stored light based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in ensembles of warm atoms in vapor cells. After a brief summary of basic continuous‐wave and dynamic EIT properties, studies using weak classical signal pulses in optically dense coherent media are discussed, including optimization strategies for stored light efficiency and pulse‐shape control, and modification of EIT and slow/stored light spectral properties due to atomic motion. Quantum memory demonstrations using both single photons and pulses of squeezed light are then reviewed. Finally a brief comparison with other approaches is presented.
This thesis set out to investigate light storage based on dynamic electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a room-temperature atomic ensemble of rubidium as a means to provide a quantum memory for single-photons created by a single rubidium atom coupled to a high-finesse optical resonator. Setting up the light storage medium presented a new addition to the research group's portfolio of experimental techniques and led to investigations of EIT, slow light and stored light in warm rubidium-87 vapour. Lambda level schemes connecting Zeeman or hyperfine substates on the D1 and D2 lines were addressed in rubidium vapour cells containing different buffer gases and different isotopic fractions of rubidium-87 and rubidium-85. Single beam spectroscopy with a weak probe was used to characterise the vapour cells. A numerical method to fit the D line spectrum to a theoretical model to include isotopic fractions and collisional broadening of a buffer gas has been implemented. Temperature and isotopic fractions could be reliably extracted from the fit parameters. For an offset-stabilisation of two lasers to address a lambda level scheme connecting the two different hyperfine groundstates in rubidium a phase locked loop including a frequency divider has been designed and implemented. Light storage and retrieval has been demonstrated using a Zeeman scheme on the D1 line. Two microsecond long classical light pulses containing one million photons on average were stored and retrieved with an efficiency of 15% after a delay of one microsecond. Several methods of attenuating the strong co-propagating control laser beam to allow for lowering the signal pulse intensity in future experiments are discussed.