Daniel Thomas Maxwell, David James Szwer, David Paredes Barato, Hannes Busche, Jonathan David Pritchard, Alexandre Gauguet, Kevin John Weatherill, Matthew Philip Austin Jones, Charles Stuart Adams
Advances in quantum technology increasingly rely on combining the functions of different systems. Strongly interacting systems, such as ions or superconductors, are ideal for processing; large ensembles for memory; and optical photons for communication. However, interfacing these components remains a challenge. For example, although cavity QED in the microwave domain, using Rydberg atoms or superconducting circuits, provides efficient coupling between photons and static qubits, microwave photons are not ideal for quantum communication due to the blackbody background. For this reason, quantum interfaces that combine different functions of a network are desirable. Here we demonstrate an interface between the microwave and optical domains that allows processing of optical photons using microwave fields. We store optical photons in highly excited collective states (Rydberg polaritons) of a cold atomic ensemble. Subsequently, we apply a microwave field that performs a rotation of the collective spin of the Rydberg polaritons, leading to coherent many-body Rabi oscillations in the amplitude of the retrieved photon pulse. We show that the microwave field modifies the long-range interactions between the stored photons, a key step toward the realisation of an all-optical analogue of neutral atom quantum gates based on dipole blockade. In addition, Rydberg polaritons provide a powerful platform for studying strongly coupled atom-light interactions without a cavity, quantum simulation of resonant energy transfer or spin liquids, and quantum metrology using Dicke states.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.6007
No comments:
Post a Comment