Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 76: Ultracold Plasmas and Rydberg Systems IV (with A)

Q 76.1: Talk

Friday, March 27, 2015, 14:30–14:45, P/H2

Controlled interactions between optical photons stored as Rydberg polaritons — •Hannes Busche, Simon W. Ball, Teodora Ilieva, Paul Huillery, Daniel Maxwell, David Paredes-Barato, David J. Szwer, Matthew P. A. Jones, and Charles S. Adams — Joint Quantum Centre (JQC) Durham-Newcastle, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom

We are using electromagnetically induced transparency to store photons as Rydberg excitations in a cold atom cloud in order to map their strong and long-ranged dipolar interactions onto the optical field and introduce effective interactions at the single photon level. The application of an external microwave field [1] allows control of the interaction strength, manifesting itself in a modification of the retrieved photon statistics [2].

Recently, we completed a new experimental apparatus that will give us the ability to store single photons in individually addressable sites. In this setup, we aim to study interactions between stored photons in spatially separated channels and explore applications such as the implementation of a universal quantum gate for photonic qubits [3].

[1] D. Maxwell et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 103001 (2013).

[2] D. Maxwell et al., Phys. Rev. A 89, 043782 (2014).

[3] D. Paredes Barato and C. S. Adams, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 040501 (2014).