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Light storage for one second in room-temperature alkali vapor

Author

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  • Or Katz

    (Weizmann Institute of Science
    Rafael Ltd)

  • Ofer Firstenberg

    (Weizmann Institute of Science)

Abstract

Light storage, the controlled and reversible mapping of photons onto long-lived states of matter, enables memory capability in optical quantum networks. Prominent storage media are warm alkali vapors due to their strong optical coupling and long-lived spin states. In a dense gas, the random atomic collisions dominate the lifetime of the spin coherence, limiting the storage time to a few milliseconds. Here we present and experimentally demonstrate a storage scheme that is insensitive to spin-exchange collisions, thus enabling long storage times at high atomic densities. This unique property is achieved by mapping the light field onto spin orientation within a decoherence-free subspace of spin states. We report on a record storage time of 1 s in room-temperature cesium vapor, a 100-fold improvement over existing storage schemes. Furthermore, our scheme lays the foundations for hour-long quantum memories using rare-gas nuclear spins.

Suggested Citation

  • Or Katz & Ofer Firstenberg, 2018. "Light storage for one second in room-temperature alkali vapor," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-04458-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04458-4
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