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Coherent optical pulse sequencer for quantum applications

Nature volume 461, pages 241–245 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The bandwidth and versatility of optical devices have revolutionized information technology systems and communication networks. Precise and arbitrary control of an optical field that preserves optical coherence is an important requisite for many proposed photonic technologies. For quantum information applications1,2, a device that allows storage and on-demand retrieval of arbitrary quantum states of light would form an ideal quantum optical memory. Recently, significant progress has been made in implementing atomic quantum memories using electromagnetically induced transparency, photon echo spectroscopy, off-resonance Raman spectroscopy and other atom–light interaction processes. Single-photon3,4 and bright-optical-field5,6 storage with quantum states have both been successfully demonstrated. Here we present a coherent optical memory based on photon echoes induced through controlled reversible inhomogeneous broadening. Our scheme allows storage of multiple pulses of light within a chosen frequency bandwidth, and stored pulses can be recalled in arbitrary order with any chosen delay between each recalled pulse. Furthermore, pulses can be time-compressed, time-stretched or split into multiple smaller pulses and recalled in several pieces at chosen times. Although our experimental results are so far limited to classical light pulses, our technique should enable the construction of an optical random-access memory for time-bin quantum information, and have potential applications in quantum information processing.

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Figure 1: GEM schematic.
Figure 2: First-in–last-out (FILO) and first-in–first-out (FIFO) memory.
Figure 3: The coherent optical pulse sequencer.
Figure 4: Flexible pulse recall.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Bell for the solenoid design code and J. Close, C. Savage and P. Drummond for suggestions. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council.

Author Contributions The experiments were designed by G.H., J.J.L., B.C.B., M.H. and P.K.L., built by M.H., B.M.S. and G.H., modelled by M.H. with assistance from G.H. and carried out by M.H. with assistance and supervision from B.C.B. and P.K.L. The manuscript was prepared by B.C.B., M.H. and P.K.L. and edited by all authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Quantum Science, ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia,

    Mahdi Hosseini, Ben M. Sparkes, Gabriel Hétet, Jevon J. Longdell, Ping Koy Lam & Ben C. Buchler

  2. Physics Department, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand

    Jevon J. Longdell

Authors
  1. Mahdi Hosseini
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  2. Ben M. Sparkes
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  3. Gabriel Hétet
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  4. Jevon J. Longdell
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  5. Ping Koy Lam
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  6. Ben C. Buchler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ben C. Buchler.

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Hosseini, M., Sparkes, B., Hétet, G. et al. Coherent optical pulse sequencer for quantum applications. Nature 461, 241–245 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08325

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