High-speed noise-free optical quantum memory

K. T. Kaczmarek, P. M. Ledingham, B. Brecht, S. E. Thomas, G. S. Thekkadath, O. Lazo-Arjona, J. H. D. Munns, E. Poem, A. Feizpour, D. J. Saunders, J. Nunn, and I. A. Walmsley
Phys. Rev. A 97, 042316 – Published 10 April 2018

Abstract

Optical quantum memories are devices that store and recall quantum light and are vital to the realization of future photonic quantum networks. To date, much effort has been put into improving storage times and efficiencies of such devices to enable long-distance communications. However, less attention has been devoted to building quantum memories which add zero noise to the output. Even small additional noise can render the memory classical by destroying the fragile quantum signatures of the stored light. Therefore, noise performance is a critical parameter for all quantum memories. Here we introduce an intrinsically noise-free quantum memory protocol based on two-photon off-resonant cascaded absorption (ORCA). We demonstrate successful storage of GHz-bandwidth heralded single photons in a warm atomic vapor with no added noise, confirmed by the unaltered photon-number statistics upon recall. Our ORCA memory meets the stringent noise requirements for quantum memories while combining high-speed and room-temperature operation with technical simplicity, and therefore is immediately applicable to low-latency quantum networks.

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  • Received 9 November 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.042316

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalQuantum Information, Science & Technology

Authors & Affiliations

K. T. Kaczmarek1,*, P. M. Ledingham1, B. Brecht1, S. E. Thomas1,2, G. S. Thekkadath1,3, O. Lazo-Arjona1, J. H. D. Munns1,2, E. Poem4, A. Feizpour1, D. J. Saunders1, J. Nunn5, and I. A. Walmsley1,†

  • 1Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
  • 2QOLS, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom
  • 3University of Ottawa, 25 Templeton Street, Ottawa, Canada K1N 6N5
  • 4Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
  • 5Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials, Department of Physics, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom

  • *krzysztof.kaczmarek@physics.ox.ac.uk
  • i.walmsley1@physics.ox.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 97, Iss. 4 — April 2018

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