We design and implement an atomic frequency comb quantum memory for 793 nm wavelength photons using a monolithic cavity based on a thulium-doped Y$_3$Al$_5$O$_{12}$ (Tm:YAG) crystal. Approximate impedance matching results in the absorption of approximately $90\%$ of input photons and a memory efficiency of (27.5$\pm$ 2.7)% over a 500 MHz bandwidth. The cavity enhancement leads to a significant improvement over the previous efficiency in Tm-doped crystals using a quantum memory protocol. In turn, this allows us for the first time to store and recall quantum states of light in such a memory. Our results demonstrate progress toward efficient and faithful storage of single photon qubits with large time-bandwidth product and multi-mode capacity for quantum networking.
Optical Investigations of Coherence and Relaxation Dynamics of a Thulium-doped Yttrium Gallium Garnet Crystal at sub-Kelvin Temperatures for Optical Quantum Memory
The creation of well understood structures using spectral hole burning is an important task in the use of technologies based on rare earth ion doped crystals. We apply a series of different techniques to model and improve the frequency dependent population change in the atomic level structure of Thulium Yttrium Gallium Garnet (Tm:YGG). In particular we demonstrate that at zero applied magnetic field, numerical solutions to frequency dependent three-level rate equations show good agreement with spectral hole burning results. This allows predicting spectral structures given a specific hole burni…
Three orders of magnitude cavity-linewidth narrowing in a rare-earth-ion-doped crystal cavity, induced by strong intra-cavity dispersion caused by off-resonant interaction with dopant ions is demonstrated. The strong dispersion is created by semi-permanent but rapidly reprogrammable changes of the rare earth absorption profiles using optical pumping techniques. Several cavity modes are shown within the spectral transmission window. Potential applications are discussed.
We experimentally demonstrate the storage of 1060 temporal modes onto a thulium-doped crystal using an atomic frequency comb (AFC). The comb covers 0.93 GHz defining the storage bandwidth. As compared to previous AFC preparation methods (pulse sequences i.e. amplitude modulation), we only use frequency modulation to produce the desired optical pumping spectrum. To ensure an accurate spectrally selective optical pumping, the frequency modulated laser is self-locked on the atomic comb. Our approach is general and should be applicable to a wide range of rare-earth doped material in the context of…
Atomic Frequency Comb (AFC) protocol has been particularly successful recently to demonstrate the storage of quantum information in a solid medium (rare-earth doped crystals). The AFC is inspired by the photon-echo technique. We show in this paper that the AFC is actually closely related to the slow-light based storage protocols extensively used in atomic vapours. Experimental verifications are performed in thulium doped YAG (Tm3+:YAG). We clarify the interplay between absorption and dispersion and propose a classification of the existing protocols.
We investigate the dynamics of a mechanical resonator in which is embedded an ensemble of two-level systems interacting with an optical cavity field. We show that this hybrid approach to optomechanics allows for enhanced effective interactions between the mechanics and the cavity field, leading for instance to ground state cooling of the mechanics, even in regimes, like the unresolved sideband regime, in which standard radiation pressure cooling would be inefficient.
We present a new generalized Dicke model, an impurity-doped Dicke model (IDDM), by the use of an impurity-doped cavity-Bose-Einstein condensate. It is shown that the impurity atom can induce Dicke quantum phase transition (QPT) from the normal phase to superradiant phase at a critic value of the impurity population. It is found that the IDDM exhibits continuous Dicke QPT with an infinite number of critical points, which is significantly different from that observed in the standard Dicke model with only one critical point. It is revealed that the impurity-induced Dicke QPT can happen in an arbi…
Quantum light-matter interfaces (QLMIs) connecting stationary qubits to photons will enable optical networks for quantum communications, precise global time keeping, photon switching, and studies of fundamental physics. Rare-earth-ion (REI) doped crystals are state-of-the-art materials for optical quantum memories and quantum transducers between optical photons, microwave photons and spin waves. Here we demonstrate coupling of an ensemble of neodymium REIs to photonic nano-cavities fabricated in the yttrium orthosilicate host crystal. Cavity quantum electrodynamics effects including Purcell en…
We propose an hybrid laser system consisting of a semiconductor external cavity laser associated to an intra-cavity diamond etalon doped with nitrogen-vacancy color centers. We consider laser emission tuned to the infrared absorption line that is enhanced under the magnetic field dependent nitrogen-vacancy electron spin resonance and show that this architecture leads to a compact solid-state magnetometer that can be operated at room-temperature. The sensitivity to the magnetic field limited by the photon shot-noise of the output laser beam is estimated to be around $250~\mathrm{fT/\sqrt{Hz}}$.…
Non-destructive detection of photonic qubits is an enabling technology for quantum information processing and quantum communication. For practical applications such as quantum repeaters and networks, it is desirable to implement such detection in a way that allows some form of multiplexing as well as easy integration with other components such as solid-state quantum memories. Here we propose an approach to non-destructive photonic qubit detection that promises to have all the mentioned features. Mediated by an impurity-doped crystal, a signal photon in an arbitrary time-bin qubit state modulat…
The negatively-charged nitrogen vacancy center (NV) in diamond has generated significant interest as a platform for quantum information processing and sensing in the solid state. For most applications, high quality optical cavities are required to enhance the NV zero-phonon line (ZPL) emission. An outstanding challenge in maximizing the degree of NV-cavity coupling is the deterministic placement of NVs within the cavity. Here, we report photonic crystal nanobeam cavities coupled to NVs incorporated by a delta-doping technique that allows nanometer-scale vertical positioning of the emitters. We…
We propose a scheme to implement a supersensitive estimation of the coupling strength in a hybrid optomechanical system which consists of a cavity-Bose-Einstein condensate system coupled to an impurity. This method can dramatically improve the estimation precision even when the involved photon number is small. The quantum Fisher information indicates that the Heisenberg scale sensitivity of the coupling rate could be obtained when the photon loss rate is smaller than the corresponding critical value in the input of either coherent state or squeezed state. The critical photon decay rate for the…
Masers, the microwave analogue of lasers, promise to deliver ultra-low noise amplification of microwave signals for use in medical MRI imaging and deep-space communication. Research on masers in modern times was rekindled thanks to the discovery of gain media that were operable at room-temperature, eschewing bulky cryogenics that hindered their use. However, besides the two known materials of pentacene doped in para-terphenyl and negatively-charged nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond, there has been scarce progress in the search for completely new room-temperature gain media. Here we show the …
Light trapping is a crucial mechanism for synchronization in optical communication. Especially on the level of single photons, control of the exact emission time is desirable. In this paper, we theoretically propose a single-photon buffering device composed of a quantum dot doped with a single Mn atom in a cavity. We present a method to detain a single cavity photon as an excitation of the dot. The storage scheme is based on bright to dark exciton conversion performed with an off-resonant external optical field and mediated via a spin-flip with the magnetic ion. The induced Stark shift brings …
The efficiency of the frequency conversion process at the heart of Raman heterodyne spectroscopy was improved by nearly four orders of magnitude by resonant enhancement of both the pump and signal optical fields. Our results using an erbium doped Y$_2$SiO$_5$ crystal at temperatures near 4K suggest that such an approach is promising for the quantum conversion of microwave to optical photons.
We demonstrate efficient and reversible mapping of a light field onto a thulium-doped crystal using an atomic frequency comb (AFC). Thanks to an accurate spectral preparation of the sample, we reach an efficiency of 9%. Our interpretation of the data is based on an original spectral analysis of the AFC. By independently measuring the absorption spectrum, we show that the efficiency is both limited by the available optical thickness and the preparation procedure at large absorption depth for a given bandwidth. The experiment is repeated with less than one photon per pulse and single photon coun…
More than 4 orders of magnitude of cavity-linewidth narrowing in a rare-earth-ion-doped crystal cavity, emanating from strong intracavity dispersion caused by off-resonant interaction with dopant ions, is demonstrated. The dispersion profiles are engineered using optical pumping techniques creating significant semipermanent but reprogrammable changes of the rare-earth absorption profiles. Several cavity modes are shown within the spectral transmission window. Several possible applications of this phenomenon are discussed.
We perform an investigation into the properties of Pr3+:Y2SiO5 whispering gallery mode resonators as a first step towards achieving the strong coupling regime of cavity QED with rare-earth-ion doped crystals. Direct measurement of cavity QED parameters are made using photon echoes, giving good agreement with theoretical predictions. By comparing the ions at the surface of the resonator to those in the center it is determined that the physical process of making the resonator does not negatively affect the properties of the ions. Coupling between the ions and resonator is analyzed through the ob…
Entangling quantum systems with different characteristics through the exchange of photons is a prerequisite for building future quantum networks. Proving the presence of entanglement between quantum memories for light working at different wavelengths furthers this goal. Here, we report on a series of experiments with a thulium-doped crystal, serving as a quantum memory for 794 nm photons, an erbium-doped fibre, serving as a quantum memory for telecommunication-wavelength photons at 1535 nm, and a source of photon pairs created via spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Characterizing the phot…
Uniting Quantum Processing Nodes of Cavity-coupled Ions with Rare-earth Quantum Repeaters Using Single-photon Pulse Shaping Based on Atomic Frequency Comb
We present cavity QED experiments with an Er:YSO crystal magnetically coupled to a 3D cylindrical sapphire loaded copper resonator. Such waveguide cavities are promising for the realization of a superconducting quantum processor. Here, we demonstrate the coherent integration of a rare-earth spin ensemble with the 3D architecture. The collective coupling strength of the Er$^{3+}$ spins to the 3D cavity is 21 MHz. The cylindrical sapphire loaded resonator allowed us to explore the anisotropic collective coupling between the rare-earth doped crystal and the cavity. This work shows the potential o…
Recent interest in the physics of non-perturbative light-matter coupling led to the development of solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics setups in which the interaction energies are comparable with the bare ones. In such a regime the ground state of the coupled system becomes interaction-dependent and is predicted to contain a population of virtual excitations which, notwithstanding having been object of many investigations, remain still unobserved. In this paper we investigate how virtual electronic excitations in quantum wells modify the ground-state charge distribution, and propose two…
Length changes due to thermo-mechanical noise originating from, for example, Brownian motion are a key limiting factor of present day state-of-the-art laser frequency stabilization using Fabry-Pérot cavities. We present a laser-frequency stabilization concept using an optical cavity with a strong slow-light effect to reduce the impact of cavity length changes on the frequency stability. The resulting noise-reduction factor is proportional to the ratio between the light phase and group velocities in the highly dispersive cavity spacer. We experimentally demonstrate a proof-of-principle implemen…
We propose a solid-state based superradiance laser which is almost insensitive to the cavity mirror vibration. Therefore, it can compete with the best frequency-stable local oscillators. The long coherence time and the large optical density of rare-earth-ions (REIs) doped solids are employed to find a regime to demonstrate a steady-state laser emission with linewidth smaller than the atomic decay rate. The experimental parameters are discussed and intracavity photon number and laser linewidth are calculated based on the mean-field theory. A procedure for measuring absolute laser linewidth is p…
We introduce a scheme for perfect routing of quantum states and entanglement in regular cavity QED networks. The couplings between the cavities are quasi-uniform and each cavity is doped with a two-level atom. Quasi-uniform couplings leads the system to evolve in invariant subspaces. Combination the evolutions of the system in its invariant subspaces with quite simple local operations on atoms in the networks, gives the perfect routing of quantum states and entanglement through the network. To provide the protocol be robust due to decoherence arisen from photon loss, the field mode of the cavi…
We propose a scheme to couple short single photon pulses to superconducting qubits. An optical photon is first absorbed into an inhomogeneously broadened rare-earth doped crystal using controlled reversible inhomogeneous broadening. The optical excitation is then mapped into a spin state using a series of $π$-pulses and subsequently transferred to a superconducting qubit via a microwave cavity. To overcome the intrinsic and engineered inhomogeneous broadening of the optical and spin transitions in rare earth doped crystals, we make use of a special transfer protocol using staggered $π$-pulses.…
We analyse the effect of a strong perpendicular magnetic field on an intersubband transition in a disordered doped quantum well strongly coupled to an optical cavity. The magnetic field changes the lineshape of the intersubband optical transition due to the interface roughness of the quantum well from a Lorentzian to a Gaussian one. In this regime, a novel form of magnetic-field-induced cavity protection sets in, which strongly reduces the polariton linewidth to the cavity contribution only. Implications of our results for fundamental studies of nonlinear polariton dynamics and for technologic…
By exploiting a system of three distant cavities, we propose a scheme for constructing tripartite entangled coherent GHZ and W states which are robust due to the photon losses in the cavities. Each of cavities is doped with a semiconductor quantum dot. By the dynamics, the excitonic modes of quantum dots are enabled to exhibit entan-gled coherent GHZ and W states. Apart from the exciton losses, the master equation approach shows that when the populations of the field modes in the cavities are negli-gible the destruction of entanglement due to decoherence arises from photon losses, is effective…
We theoretically investigate the optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT) phenomenon in a N-cavity optomechanical system doped with a pair of Rydberg atoms with the presence of a strong pump field and a weak probe field applied to the Nth cavity. 2N-1(N<10) number OMIT windows can be observed in the output field when N cavities coupled with N mechanical oscillators, respectively. But, the mechanical oscillators coupled with different even-odd label cavities lead to different effect on OMIT. On the other hand, two additional transparent windows (extra resonances) are presented, if two Rydbe…
90%-Efficient Optical Storage in a Rare-Earth Crystal with a Low-Loss Impedance-Matched Cavity
Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；International Quantum Academy, and Shenzhen Branch, Hefei National Laboratory（国际量子学院，合肥国家实验室深圳分院）；Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, Research School of Physics, Australian National University（澳大利亚国立大学量子计算与通信技术卓越中心物理研究学院）
The interaction of single quantum emitters with an optical cavity enables the realization of efficient spin-photon interfaces, an essential resource for quantum networks. The dynamical control of the spontaneous emission rate of quantum emitters in cavities has important implications in quantum technologies, e.g. for shaping the emitted photons waveform, for generating quantum entanglement, or for driving coherently the optical transition while preventing photon emission. Here we demonstrate the dynamical control of the Purcell enhanced emission of a small ensemble of erbium ions doped into na…
We study theoretically the entanglement of two-photon states in the ground state of the intersubband cavity system, the so-called polariton vacuum. The system consists of a sequence of doped quantum wells located inside a microcavity and the photons can interact with intersubband excitations inside the quantum wells. Using an explicit solution for the ground state of the system, operated in the ultrastrong coupling regime, a post-selection is introduced, where only certain two-photon states are considered and analyzed for mode entanglement. We find that a fast quench of the coupling creates en…
We study Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering properties of quantum phases in the generalized Dicke model (GDM) generated by a cavity Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) doped with a single impurity. It is shown that the normal and superradiant phases of the GDM exhibit much rich EPR steerability. In the normal phase, there exist one-way EPR steering from the cavity field (condensed atoms) to condensed atoms (the cavity field). In the superradiant phase, there is either one-way or two-way EPR steering for the cavity field and condensed atoms. It is found that the single impurity can act as a sing…
Quantum memories for light, which allow the reversible transfer of quantum states between light and matter, are central to the development of quantum repeaters, quantum networks, and linear optics quantum computing. Significant progress has been reported in recent years, including the faithful transfer of quantum information from photons in pure and entangled qubit states. However, none of these demonstrations confirm that photons stored in and recalled from quantum memories remain suitable for two-photon interference measurements, such as C-NOT gates and Bell-state measurements, which constit…
We report on experiments demonstrating the reversible mapping of heralded single photons to long lived collective optical atomic excitations stored in a Pr$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$ crystal. A cavity-enhanced spontaneous down-conversion source is employed to produce widely non-degenerate narrow-band ($\approx 2\,\mathrm{MHz}$) photon-pairs. The idler photons, whose frequency is compatible with telecommunication optical fibers, are used to herald the creation of the signal photons, compatible with the Pr$^{3+}$ transition. The signal photons are stored and retrieved using the atomic frequency comb pr…
We report on a source of heralded narrowband (3MHz) single photons compatible with solid-state spin-wave quantum memories based on praseodymium doped crystals. Widely non-degenerate narrow-band photon pairs are generated using cavity enhanced down conversion. One photon from the pair is at telecom wavelengths and serves as heralding signal, while the heralded single photon is at 606nm, resonant with an optical transition in Pr:YSO. The source offers a heralding efficiency of 28% and a generation rate exceeding 2000 pairs/mW in a single-mode. The single photon nature of the heralded field is co…
Rare-earth doped crystals have long coherence times and the potential to provide quantum interfaces between microwave and optical photons. Such applications benefit from a high cooperativity between the spin ensemble and a microwave cavity -- this motivates an increase in the rare earth ion concentration which in turn impacts the spin coherence lifetime. We measure spin dynamics of two rare-earth spin species, $^{145}$Nd and Yb doped into Y$_{2}$SiO$_{5}$, coupled to a planar microwave resonator in the high cooperativity regime, in the temperature range 1.2 K to 14 mK. We identify relevant dec…
We describe a multi-mode quantum memory for propagating microwave photons that combines a solid-state spin ensemble resonantly coupled to a frequency tunable single-mode microwave cavity. We first show that high efficiency mapping of the quantum state transported by a free photon to the spin ensemble is possible both for strong and weak coupling between the cavity mode and the spin ensemble. We also show that even in the weak coupling limit unit efficiency and faithful retrieval can be obtained through time reversal inhomogeneous dephasing based on spin echo techniques. This is possible provid…
Electric dipole transitions between different cavity polariton branches or between dressed atomic states with the same excitation number are strictly forbidden in centro-symmetric systems. For doped quantum wells in semiconductor microcavities, the strong coupling between an intersubband transition in the conduction band and a cavity mode produces two branches of intersubband cavity polaritons, whose normal-mode energy splitting is tunable and can be in the terahertz region. Here, we show that, by using asymmetric quantum wells, it is possible to have allowed dipolar transitions between differ…
Cavity control of quantum matter may offer new ways to study and manipulate many-body systems. A particularly appealing idea is to use cavities to enhance superconductivity, especially in unconventional or high-$T_c$ systems. Motivated by this, we propose a scheme for coupling Terahertz resonators to the antiferromagnetic fluctuations in a cuprate parent compound, which are believed to provide the glue for Cooper pairs in the superconducting phase. First, we derive the interaction between magnon excitations of the Neél-order and polar phonons associated with the planar oxygens. This mode also …
In contrast to interband excitons in undoped quantum wells, doped quantum wells do not display sharp resonances due to excitonic bound states. In these systems the effective Coulomb interaction between electrons and holes typically only leads to a depolarization shift of the single-electron intersubband transitions. Non-perturbative light-matter interaction in solid-state devices has been investigated as a pathway to tune optoelectronic properties of materials. A recent theoretical work [Cortese et al., Optica 6, 354 (2019)] predicted that, when the doped quantum wells are embedded in a photon…
