Abstract
Storage of quantum information encoded into heralded single photons is an essential constituent of long-distance quantum communication based on quantum repeaters and of optical quantum information processing. The storage of photonic polarization qubits is, however, difficult because many materials are birefringent and have polarization-dependent absorption. Here we present a simple scheme that eliminates these polarization effects, and we demonstrate it by storing heralded polarization qubits into a solid-state quantum memory. The quantum memory is implemented with a biaxial yttrium orthosilicate () crystal doped with rare-earth ions. Heralded single photons generated from a filtered spontaneous parametric down-conversion source are stored, and quantum state tomography of the retrieved polarization state reveals an average fidelity of , which is significantly higher than what is achievable with a measure-and-prepare strategy.
- Received 17 January 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.190503
© 2012 American Physical Society
Synopsis
Polarized Light in Safe Storage
Published 10 May 2012
New techniques for storing and retrieving polarized photons improve the quantum memory capabilities of rare-earth-doped crystals.
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