Noise-free on-demand atomic frequency comb quantum memory

Abstract

We present an extension of the atomic frequency comb protocol that utilizes the Stark effect to perform noise-free, on-demand, control. An experimental realization of this protocol was implemented in the Pr3+:Y2SiO5 solid-state system, and a recall efficiency of 38% for a 0.8 μs storage time was achieved. Experiments were performed with both bright pulses as well as weak-coherent states, the latter achieving a signal-to-noise ratio of 570±120 using input pulses with an average photon number of ∼0.1. The principal limitation for a longer storage time was found to be the minimum peak width attainable for Pr3+:Y2SiO5. We employ an adaptation of an established atomic frequency comb model to investigate an on-demand, wide-bandwidth, memory based on Eu3+:Y2SiO5. From this, we determine that a storage time as long as 100 μs may be practical even without recourse to spin-wave storage.Received 7 July 2020Accepted 22 March 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.023099Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasQuantum communicationQuantum memoriesQuantum opticsPhysical SystemsRare-earth doped crystalsTechniquesCoherent controlQuantum InformationAtomic, Molecular & Optical