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arXiv:quant-ph/0108046 · Physical Review A

Phase coherence and control of stored photonic information

A. Mair, Jon Hager, David F. Phillips, R. L. Walsworth, Mikhail D. Lukin

Published Feb 14, 2002• 130 citations
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Abstract

We report the demonstration of phase coherence and control for the recently developed ``light-storage'' technique. Specifically, we employ a dynamic form of electromagnetically induced transparency to bring the group velocity of a light pulse to zero, thereby mapping the photonic information into an ensemble spin coherence in warm Rb vapor. We then apply a pulsed magnetic field to vary the phase of the atomic spin excitations and map the altered information back into light. We detect the resultant phase shift in an optical interferometric measurement, thus confirming that the storage process preserves phase coherence.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.65.031802

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We report the demonstration of phase coherence and control for the recently developed ``light-storage'' technique. Specifically, we employ a dynamic form of electromagnetically induced transparency to bring the group velocity of a light pulse to zero, thereby mapping the photonic information into an ensemble spin coherence in warm Rb vapor. We then apply a pulsed magnetic field to vary the phase of the atomic spin excitations and map the altered information back into light. We detect the resultant phase shift in an optical interferometric measurement, thus confirming that the storage process preserves phase coherence.
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In quantum memory based on an atomic medium, we may have a question about whether all information on the stored light is preserved. In particular, the phase coherence between the stored and retrieval light pulses is very interesting, because it can indicate the relationship between the coherence time and storage time of the light. In this paper, we investigate the phase coherence time of light stored in a warm atomic vapor, by examining the beat-note interference between the retrieval light pulse and a reference light beam optically delayed using an optical fiber. The beat-note interference fringes are measured for different reference-light optical delays. The observed retrieval-light phase indicates that the phase of the input probe light is preserved in the medium. However, we further confirm that the retrieval-light phase coherence depends on the phase coherence of the coupling light used for retrieval in the storage process.
In this paper, an optical memory based on an ensemble of cold Cesium atoms interacting with light in the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) regime is studied in view of spatially multimode quantum storage. The interfacing protocol involves a control field, generating EIT for the very weak field that carries the quantum signal to be stored and enabling its mapping into the collective hyperfine coherence of the cold atomic ensemble. For the demonstration of multimode storage, the signal pulse at the single photon level is prepared in a mode with (OAM), while the control field is in a TEM00 mode. After the writing process, the information is kept in the memory register. In the retrieval phase, the information is read back from atoms to light and we show that these pulses at the single photon level with OAM can be stored and retrieved with a preserved spatial phase and a good efficiency.
We present experimental work that investigates whether quantum information carried by light can be stored via reversible mapping of the quantum state of such light onto a collective atomic coherence. Such a quantum memory could be utilized to allow quantum communication over long, lossy channels. Current efforts concentrate on writing a photon-number-squeezed state of light onto a collective coherence between the ground-state hyperfine levels of 87Rb atoms in a warm vapor cell, and subsequent on-demand retrieval of this light. In this approach, intensity squeezing between the written and retrieved photon fields provides evidence for storage of a photon-number-squeezed state of light. The scheme is based on spontaneous Raman transitions that create the atomic coherence, and at the same time convert control fields into signal fields that propagate under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. We present experimental results demonstrating the storage and retrieval of light using this method, and discuss techniques for measuring intensity squeezing between these photon fields.
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.