Demonstration of atomic frequency comb memory for light with spin-wave storage.
We present a light-storage experiment in a praseodymium-doped crystal where the light is mapped onto an inhomogeneously broadened optical transition shaped into an atomic frequency comb. After absorption of the light, the optical excitation is converted into a spin-wave excitation by a control pulse. A second control pulse reads the memory (on-demand) by reconverting the spin-wave excitation to an optical one, where the comb structure causes a photon-echo-type rephasing of the dipole moments and directional retrieval of the light. This combination of photon-echo and spin-wave storage allows us to store submicrosecond (450 ns) pulses for up to 20 mus. The scheme has a high potential for storing multiple temporal modes in the single-photon regime, which is an important resource for future long-distance quantum communication based on quantum repeaters.
Afzelius
Mikael
M
Group of Applied Physics, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. mikael.afzelius@unige.ch
Usmani
Imam
I
Amari
Atia
A
Lauritzen
Björn
B
Walther
Andreas
A
Simon
Christoph
C
Sangouard
Nicolas
N
Minár
Jirí
J
de Riedmatten
Hugues
H
Gisin
Nicolas
N
Kröll
Stefan
S
D017785:Photons; D011789:Quantum Theory; D013997:Time Factors