Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 48: Quanteninformation: Quantenkommunikation I
Q 48.7: Talk
Thursday, March 5, 2009, 15:30–15:45, Audi-B
Quantum Memory with Optically Trapped Atoms — •Thorsten Strassel1, Valentin Hagel1, Chih-Sung Chuu1, Bo Zhao1, Yu-Ao Chen1, Markus Koch1, Shuai Chen1, Zhen-Sheng Yuan1,2, Jörg Schmiedmayer3, and Jian-Wei Pan1,2 — 1Physikalisches Institut, Heidelberg, Germany — 2Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Modern Physics, Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China — 3Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten, TU-Wien, Vienna, Austria
A quantum memory is a key element for long distance quantum communication and in the conversion of probabilistic single photon sources into deterministic ones. We report the experimental demonstration of a quantum memory of an increased lifetime for DLCZ-type protocols with ultra-cold atoms for single photon states in a far red-detuned optical dipole trap (FORT). The generation of the collective atomic state is heralded by the detection of a Raman scattered photon and accompanied by storage in the ensemble of atoms. The optical dipole trap provides confinement for the atoms during the quantum storage while retaining the atomic coherence. By addressing first-order magnetic field insensitive atomic states the dephasing of the atomic coherence caused by stray fields is suppressed. We probe the quantum storage by cross-correlation of the photon pair arising from the Raman scattering and the retrieval of the atomic state stored in the memory. Non-classical correlations are observed for storage times up to 60 microseconds. In addition we provide an outlook on future experiments.