Abstract
Quantum memories are regarded as one of the fundamental building blocks of linear-optical quantum computation1 and long-distance quantum communication2. A long-standing goal to realize scalable quantum information processing is to build a long-lived and efficient quantum memory. There have been significant efforts distributed towards this goal. However, either efficient but short-lived3,4 or long-lived but inefficient quantum memories5,6,7 have been demonstrated so far. Here we report a high-performance quantum memory in which long lifetime and high retrieval efficiency meet for the first time. By placing a ring cavity around an atomic ensemble, employing a pair of clock states, creating a long-wavelength spin wave and arranging the set-up in the gravitational direction, we realize a quantum memory with an intrinsic spin wave to photon conversion efficiency of 73(2)% together with a storage lifetime of 3.2(1) ms. This realization provides an essential tool towards scalable linear-optical quantum information processing.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the European Commission through the ERC Grant, the STREP project HIP, the CAS, the NNSFC and the National Fundamental Research Program (Grant No. 2011CB921300) of China.
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X-H.B., A.D., B.Z. and J-W.P. conceived and designed the experiment. A.D., P.D., A.R., T.S. and X-H.B. built the set-up. X-H.B., A.R., P.D. and J.R. carried out the experiment. X-H.B., A.R., L.L., N-L.L. and B.Z. analysed the data. X-H.B. and B.Z. wrote the paper with substantial contributions by all authors. J-W.P. supervised the whole project.
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Bao, XH., Reingruber, A., Dietrich, P. et al. Efficient and long-lived quantum memory with cold atoms inside a ring cavity. Nature Phys 8, 517–521 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2324
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2324
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