Storage and Control of a Single Photon Wave Packet
Abstract
Quantum optical memory implies the storage of quantum state of light in an atomic ensemble and its retrieval at the later moment of time on demand. It is one of the key elements of both quantum communication and quantum computing. Two types of quantum optical memory techniques have been developed in the last decade. The first one is based on an optimal temporal shaping of the amplitude of a strong coherent control field, forming along with the quantum field a three-level configuration in atomic medium (such as EIT and Raman quantum memories). The second one is based on photon echo mechanism [such as atomic frequency comb (AFC) and gradient echo memory (GEM)]. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, but in general, an experiment-friendly, reliable, high speed, low loss, broad band quantum storage of a single-photon wave packet with large efficiency and fidelity remains a very challenging task.
Here we propose two new quantum optical storage techniques to resolve some of the difficulties and to introduce more controllability over the single-photon processing. The first method is based on phase matching control in Raman configuration (via the modulation in time of the control field's refractive index, propagation direction, and/or carrier frequency chirp). The second method is based on (continues or discrete) spatial frequency chirp of a control field. In order to overcome some general problems inherent to light-atoms interfaces, we propose also a new quantum interface based on γ -ray-nuclear transitions, which looks promising for quantum information processing.
Citation
Zhang, Xiwen (2016). Storage and Control of a Single Photon Wave Packet. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /158932.