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arXiv:quant-ph/0511017 · Physical Review A

Theory of dark-state polariton collapses and revivals

S. D. Jenkins, Dzmitry Matsukevich, T. Chanelière, A. Kuzmich, T. A. B. Kennedy

Published Feb 22, 2006• 61 citations
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Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of dark-state polaritons in an atomic ensemble with ground-state degeneracy. A signal light pulse may be stored and retrieved from the atomic sample by adiabatic variation of the amplitude of a control field. During the storage process, a magnetic field causes rotation of the atomic hyperfine coherences, leading to collapses and revivals of the dark-state polariton number. These collapses and revivals should be observable in measurements of the retrieved signal field, as a function of storage time and magnetic field orientation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.73.021803

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We investigate the dynamics of dark-state polaritons in an atomic ensemble with ground-state degeneracy. A signal light pulse may be stored and retrieved from the atomic sample by adiabatic variation of the amplitude of a control field. During the storage process, a magnetic field causes rotation of the atomic hyperfine coherences, leading to collapses and revivals of the dark-state polariton number. These collapses and revivals should be observable in measurements of the retrieved signal field, as a function of storage time and magnetic field orientation.
By time-dependent variation of a control field, both coherent and single-photon states of light are stored in, and retrieved from, a cold atomic gas. The efficiency of retrieval is studied as a function of the storage time in an applied magnetic field. A series of collapses and revivals is observed, in very good agreement with theoretical predictions. The observations are interpreted in terms of the time evolution of the collective excitation of atomic spin wave and light wave, known as the dark-state polariton.
We observe dark-state polariton collapses and revivals in a quantum memory based on electromagnetically induced transparency on a cloud of cold cesium atoms in a magnetic field. Using ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{+}$-polarized signal and control beams in the direction of the magnetic field, we suppress the dark-state polariton collapses by polarizing the atoms towards one of the stretched Zeeman states and optimizing the frequency detuning of the control beam. In this way, we demonstrate a quantum memory with only partial dark-state polariton collapses, making the memory usable at any storage time, not only at discretized times of revivals. We obtain a storage time of more than 400 $\textmu{}\mathrm{s}$, which is ten times longer than what we can achieve by trying to annul the magnetic field.
In this thesis, we explore the quantum dynamics of light interactions with optically thick collections of atoms. We provide a theoretical description of several recent experiments in which some key operations necessary for the implementation of quantum communication networks are demonstrated. Collective Raman scattering from an atomic ensemble is shown to produce probabilistic entanglement between the polarization of a scattered photon and an associated collective atomic excitation. The predicted correlations agree with experimental observations. We also propose a method to use cascade transitions to produce entanglement between a photon with a frequency in the telecom range (ideal for transmission over optical fibers) and a near infrared photon (ideal for storage in an atomic ensemble), and a description of the experimental demonstration is provided. We also propose and describe the implementation of a deterministic source of single photons.\n\nIn addition, we generalize the theory of dark-state polaritons in ensembles of three level Lambda atoms to account for the nuclear spin degeneracy of alkali atoms. This generalized theory provides a description of the first demonstration of single photon storage and retrieval from atomic ensembles. Additionally, in the presence of a uniform magnetic field, we predict the occurrence of collapses and revivals of the photon retrieval efficiency as a function of storage time within the ensemble. These predictions are in very good agreement with subsequent experimental observations. We also exploit the ability of photon storage to entangle remote atomic qubits.
Light propagation and storing in a medium of atoms in the tripod configuration driven by two control pulses are investigated theoretically in terms of two polaritons and numerically. It is shown that a magnetic field switched on at the pulse storage stage changes the phase relations between the atomic coherences due to the stored pulse, which leads to an essential modification of the released pulse. Quantitative relations concerning the released pulse and the coherences are given. A general situation when the two control fields are not proportional at the pulse release stage is also examined. It is shown that in both cases a single dark state polariton is not sufficient to account for the pulse evolution, which is connected with the fact that a part of the signal remains in the medium after the release stage.
We consider slow-light propagation in an atomic medium with a tripod level scheme. We show that the coexistence of two types of dark-state polaritons leads to the propagation dynamics, which is qualitatively different from that in a $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ medium, and allows therefore for very efficient conversion of signal photons into spin excitations. This efficiency is shown to be very close to 1 even for very long signal light pulses, which could not be entirely compressed into a $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ medium at a comparable strength of the control field.