Abstract
Strong interaction between two single photons is a long standing and important goal in quantum photonics. This would enable a new regime of nonlinear optics and unlock several applications in quantum information science, including photonic quantum gates and deterministic Bell-state measurements. In the context of quantum networks, it would be important to achieve interactions between single photons from independent photon pairs storable in quantum memories. So far, most experiments showing nonlinearities at the single-photon level have used weak classical input light. Here we demonstrate the storage and retrieval of a paired single photon emitted by an ensemble quantum memory in a strongly nonlinear medium based on highly excited Rydberg atoms. We show that nonclassical correlations between the two photons persist after retrieval from the Rydberg ensemble. Our result is an important step towards deterministic photon–photon interactions, and may enable deterministic Bell-state measurements with multimode quantum memories.
Highlights
Efficient photon-photon interactions require a highly nonlinear medium which strongly couples with a light field, a single-photon source compatible with the medium and the ability to coherently map the photon in and out of the nonlinear medium [1]
We demonstrate the storage and retrieval of a paired single photon emitted by an ensemble quantum memory in a strongly nonlinear medium based on highly excited Rydberg atoms
For quantum repeaters applications for long distance quantum communication, the single photon should be part of a correlated photon pair generated by a quantum memory (QM) which allows for synchronization along the communication line [2]
Summary
Efficient photon-photon interactions require a highly nonlinear medium which strongly couples with a light field, a single-photon source compatible with the medium and the ability to coherently map the photon in and out of the nonlinear medium [1]. We demonstrate the storage and retrieval of a paired single photon emitted by an ensemble quantum memory in a strongly nonlinear medium based on highly excited Rydberg atoms.
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