Cavity-Enhanced Room-Temperature Broadband Raman Memory

D. J. Saunders, J. H. D. Munns, T. F. M. Champion, C. Qiu, K. T. Kaczmarek, E. Poem, P. M. Ledingham, I. A. Walmsley, and J. Nunn

Journal
Physical Review Letters
Abstract

Broadband quantum memories hold great promise as multiplexing elements in future photonic quantum information protocols. Alkali-vapor Raman memories combine high-bandwidth storage, on-demand readout, and operation at room temperature without collisional fluorescence noise. However, previous implementations have required large control pulse energies and have suffered from four-wave-mixing noise. Here, we present a Raman memory where the storage interaction is enhanced by a low-finesse birefringent cavity tuned into simultaneous resonance with the signal and control fields, dramatically reducing the energy required to drive the memory. By engineering antiresonance for the anti-Stokes field, we also suppress the four-wave-mixing noise and report the lowest unconditional noise floor yet achieved in a Raman-type warm vapor memory, (15±2)×10−3photons per pulse, with a total efficiency of (9.5±0.5)%.

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