gradient-echo-quantum-memory-in-warm-atomic-vapor

Gradient Echo Quantum Memory in Warm Atomic Vapor

Gradient  echo memory (GEM) is a protocol for storing optical quantum states of light in  atomic ensembles. The primary motivation for such a technology ...

The Australian National University

We report the first direct experimental characterization of continuous variable quantum Stokes parameters. We generate a continuous wave light beam with more than 3 dB of simultaneous squeezing in three of the four Stokes parameters. The polarization squeezed beam is produced by mixing two quadrature squeezed beams on a polarizing beam splitter. Depending on the squeezed quadrature of these two beams the quantum uncertainty volume on the Poincaré sphere becomes a "cigarlike" or "pancakelike" ellipsoid.

Polarization squeezing of continuous variable stokes parameters.

Interferometric gravitational wave detectors are expected to be limited by shot noise at some frequencies. We experimentally demonstrate that a power recycled Michelson with squeezed light injected into the dark port can overcome this limit. An improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio of 2.3 dB is measured and locked stably for long periods of time. The configuration, control, and signal readout of our experiment are compatible with current gravitational wave detector designs. We consider the application of our system to long baseline interferometer designs such as LIGO.

Experimental demonstration of a squeezing-enhanced power-recycled michelson interferometer for gravitational wave detection.

We report the experimental transformation of quadrature entanglement between two optical beams into continuous variable polarization entanglement. We extend the inseparability criterion proposed by Duan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2722 (2000)]] to polarization states and use it to quantify the entanglement. We propose an elaboration utilizing two quadrature entangled pairs for which all three Stokes operators between a pair of beams are entangled.

Experimental demonstration of continuous variable polarization entanglement.

The measurement sensitivity of the pointing direction of a laser beam is ultimately limited by the quantum nature of light. To reduce this limit, we have experimentally produced a quantum laser pointer, a beam of light whose direction is measured with a precision greater than that possible for a usual laser beam. The laser pointer is generated by combining three different beams in three orthogonal transverse modes, two of them in a squeezed-vacuum state and one in an intense coherent field. The result provides a demonstration of multichannel spatial squeezing, along with its application to the improvement of beam positioning sensitivity and, more generally, to imaging.

A quantum laser pointer.

We demonstrate a multipartite protocol to securely distribute and reconstruct a quantum state. A secret quantum state is encoded into a tripartite entangled state and distributed to three players. By collaborating, any two of the three players can reconstruct the state, while individual players obtain nothing. We characterize this (2,3) threshold quantum state sharing scheme in terms of fidelity, signal transfer, and reconstruction noise. We demonstrate a fidelity averaged over all reconstruction permutations of 0.73+/-0.04, a level achievable only using quantum resources.

Tripartite quantum state sharing.

We report on the analysis and prototype characterization of a dual-electrode electro-optic modulator that can generate both amplitude and phase modulations with a selectable relative phase, termed a quadrature variable modulator (QVM). All modulation states can be reached by tuning only the electrical inputs, facilitating real-time tuning, and the device has shown good suppression and stability properties. A mathematical analysis is presented, including the development of a geometric-phase representation for modulation. The experimental characterization of the device shows that relative suppressions of 38, 39, and 30 dB for phase, single sideband, and carrier-suppressed modulations, respectively, can be obtained as well as that the device is well behaved when scanning continuously through the parameter space of modulations. The QVM is compared with existing optical configurations that can produce amplitude and phase-modulation combinations in the context of applications such as the tuning of lock points in optical-locking schemes, single-sideband applications, modulation fast-switching applications, and applications requiring combined modulations.

Electro-optic modulator capable of generating simultaneous amplitude and phase modulations.

We demonstrate the generation of broadband continuous-wave optical squeezing from 280 Hz-100 kHz using a below-threshold optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The squeezed state phase was controlled using a noise locking technique. We show that low frequency noise sources, such as seed noise, pump noise, and detuning fluctuations, present in optical parametric amplifiers, have negligible effect on squeezing produced by a below-threshold OPO. This low frequency squeezing is ideal for improving the sensitivity of audio frequency measuring devices such as gravitational-wave detectors.

Squeezing in the audio gravitational-wave detection band.

We propose a new coherent state quantum key distribution protocol that eliminates the need to randomly switch between measurement bases. This protocol provides significantly higher secret key rates with increased bandwidths than previous schemes that only make single quadrature measurements. It also offers the further advantage of simplicity compared to all previous protocols which, to date, have relied on switching.

Quantum cryptography without switching.

We realize an end-to-end no-switching quantum key distribution protocol using continuous-wave coherent light. We encode weak broadband Gaussian modulations onto the amplitude and phase quadratures of light beams. Our no-switching protocol achieves high secret key rate via a post-selection protocol that utilizes both quadrature information simultaneously. We establish a secret key rate of 25 Mbits/s for a lossless channel and 1 kbit/s for 90% channel loss, per 17 MHz of detected bandwidth, assuming individual Gaussian eavesdropping attacks. Since our scheme is truly broadband, it can potentially deliver orders of magnitude higher key rates by extending the encoding bandwidth with higher-end telecommunication technology.

No-switching quantum key distribution using broadband modulated coherent light.

We investigate the second-order nonlinear interaction as a means to generate entanglement between fields of differing wavelengths and show that perfect entanglement can, in principle, be produced between the fundamental and second-harmonic fields in these processes. Neither pure second-harmonic generation nor parametric oscillation optimally produce entanglement; such optimal entanglement is rather produced by an intermediate process.

Harmonic entanglement with second-order nonlinearity.

We consider the problem of measurement of optical transverse profile parameters and their conjugate variable. Using multimode analysis, we introduce the concept of detection noise modes. For Gaussian beams, displacement and tilt are a pair of transverse-profile conjugate variables. We experimentally demonstrate the optimal encoding and detection of these variables with a spatial homodyning scheme. Using higher-order spatial mode squeezing, we show the sub-shot-noise measurements for the displacement and tilt of a Gaussian beam.

Quantum measurements of spatial conjugate variables: displacement and tilt of a Gaussian beam.

We present a technique for measuring the second-order coherence function g(2)(tau) of light using a Hanbury Brown-Twiss intensity interferometer modified for homodyne detection. The experiment was performed entirely in the continuous-variable regime at the sideband frequency of a bright carrier field. We used the setup to characterize g(2)(tau) for thermal and coherent states and investigated its immunity to optical loss. We measured g(2)(tau) of a displaced-squeezed state and found a best antibunching statistic of g(2)(0)=0.11+/-0.18.

Measuring photon antibunching from continuous variable sideband squeezing.

Homodyne detection relies on the beat between a relatively strong local oscillator (LO) field at the carrier frequency and a signal beam with sidebands centered around the carrier frequency. This type of signal detection, or signal readout, is widely used in quantum optics applications and is expected to be used in advanced interferometric gravitational wave detectors. We investigate experimentally the limitations to making such measurements in a laboratory environment at audio frequencies. We find that beam jitter noise, electronic noise of the photodetectors, and the LO intensity noise can limit the homodyne detection in this frequency band, and we discuss potential solutions.

Technical limitations to homodyne detection at audio frequencies.

We have experimentally demonstrated how two beams of light separated by an octave in frequency can become entangled after their interaction in a chi;{(2)} nonlinear medium. The entangler was a nonlinear optical resonator that was strongly driven by coherent light at the fundamental and second-harmonic wavelengths. An interconversion between the fields created quantum correlations in the amplitude and phase quadratures, which were measured by two independent homodyne detectors. Analysis of the resulting correlation matrix revealed a wave function inseparability of 0.74(1)<1, thereby satisfying the criterion of entanglement.

Observation of entanglement between two light beams spanning an octave in optical frequency.

Position and momentum were the first pair of conjugate observables explicitly used to illustrate the intricacy of quantum mechanics. We have extended position and momentum entanglement to bright optical beams. Applications in optical metrology and interferometry require the continuous measurement of laser beams, with the accuracy fundamentally limited by the uncertainty principle. Techniques based on spatial entanglement of the beams could overcome this limit, and high-quality entanglement is required. We report a value of 0.51 for inseparability and 0.62 for the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen criterion, both normalized to a classical limit of 1. These results are a conclusive optical demonstration of macroscopic position and momentum quantum entanglement and also confirm that the resources for spatial multimode protocols are available.

Entangling the spatial properties of laser beams.

For optimal Chi((2)) nonlinear interaction the phase matching condition must be satisfied. For type I and type II phase matched materials, this is generally achieved by controlling the temperature of the nonlinear media. We describe a technique to readout the phase-matching condition interferometrically, and experimentally demonstrate feedback control in a degenerate optical parametric amplifier (OPA) which is resonant at both the fundamental and harmonic frequencies. The interferometric readout technique is based on using the cavity resonances at the fundamental and harmonic frequencies to enable the readout of the phase mismatch. We achieve relatively fast temperature feedback using the photothermal effect, by modulating the amplitude of the OPA pump beam.

Nonlinear phase matching locking via optical readout.

The bandwidth and versatility of optical devices have revolutionized information technology systems and communication networks. Precise and arbitrary control of an optical field that preserves optical coherence is an important requisite for many proposed photonic technologies. For quantum information applications, a device that allows storage and on-demand retrieval of arbitrary quantum states of light would form an ideal quantum optical memory. Recently, significant progress has been made in implementing atomic quantum memories using electromagnetically induced transparency, photon echo spectroscopy, off-resonance Raman spectroscopy and other atom-light interaction processes. Single-photon and bright-optical-field storage with quantum states have both been successfully demonstrated. Here we present a coherent optical memory based on photon echoes induced through controlled reversible inhomogeneous broadening. Our scheme allows storage of multiple pulses of light within a chosen frequency bandwidth, and stored pulses can be recalled in arbitrary order with any chosen delay between each recalled pulse. Furthermore, pulses can be time-compressed, time-stretched or split into multiple smaller pulses and recalled in several pieces at chosen times. Although our experimental results are so far limited to classical light pulses, our technique should enable the construction of an optical random-access memory for time-bin quantum information, and have potential applications in quantum information processing.

Coherent optical pulse sequencer for quantum applications.

We report on the performance of a dual-wavelength resonant, traveling-wave optical parametric oscillator to generate squeezed light for application in advanced gravitational-wave interferometers. Shot noise suppression of 8.6±0.8 dB was measured across the detection band of interest to Advanced LIGO, and controlled squeezing measured over 5900 s. Our results also demonstrate that the traveling-wave design has excellent intracavity backscattered light suppression of 47 dB and incident backscattered light suppression of 41 dB, which is a crucial design issue for application in advanced interferometers.

Backscatter tolerant squeezed light source for advanced gravitational-wave detectors.

We report on the generation of high-order optical vortices by spiral phase mirrors (SPMs). The mirrors are produced by direct machining with a diamond tool and are shown to produce high-quality optical vortices with topological charges ranging from 1 to upwards of 100 at a wavelength of 532 nm. The direct machining technique is flexible and offers the promise of high-precision, large-diameter SPMs that are compatible with high optical powers.

Generation of high-order optical vortices using directly machined spiral phase mirrors.

Entanglement between large numbers of quantum modes is the quintessential resource for future technologies such as the quantum internet. Conventionally, the generation of multimode entanglement in optics requires complex layouts of beamsplitters and phase shifters in order to transform the input modes into entangled modes. Here we report the highly versatile and efficient generation of various multimode entangled states with the ability to switch between different linear optics networks in real time. By defining our modes to be combinations of different spatial regions of one beam, we may use just one pair of multi-pixel detectors in order to measure multiple entangled modes. We programme virtual networks that are fully equivalent to the physical linear optics networks they are emulating. We present results for N=2 up to N=8 entangled modes here, including N=2, 3, 4 cluster states. Our approach introduces the highly sought after attributes of flexibility and scalability to multimode entanglement.

Article	Year
Polarization squeezing of continuous variable stokes parameters. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 11864004	2002
Experimental demonstration of a squeezing-enhanced power-recycled michelson interferometer for gravitational wave detection. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 12059348	2002
Experimental demonstration of continuous variable polarization entanglement. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 12484884	2002
A quantum laser pointer. Science (New York, N.Y.)\| PubMed ID: 12920292	2003
Tripartite quantum state sharing. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 15169193	2004
Electro-optic modulator capable of generating simultaneous amplitude and phase modulations. Applied optics\| PubMed ID: 15468710	2004
Squeezing in the audio gravitational-wave detection band. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 15524974	2004
Quantum cryptography without switching. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 15525058	2004
No-switching quantum key distribution using broadband modulated coherent light. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 16383884	2005
Harmonic entanglement with second-order nonlinearity. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 16605992	2006
Quantum measurements of spatial conjugate variables: displacement and tilt of a Gaussian beam. Optics letters\| PubMed ID: 16642164	2006
Measuring photon antibunching from continuous variable sideband squeezing. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 17501348	2007
Technical limitations to homodyne detection at audio frequencies. Applied optics\| PubMed ID: 17514296	2007
Observation of entanglement between two light beams spanning an octave in optical frequency. Physical review letters\| PubMed ID: 18643584	2008
Entangling the spatial properties of laser beams. Science (New York, N.Y.)\| PubMed ID: 18653887	2008
Nonlinear phase matching locking via optical readout. Optics express\| PubMed ID: 19529540	2006
Coherent optical pulse sequencer for quantum applications. Nature\| PubMed ID: 19741705	2009
Backscatter tolerant squeezed light source for advanced gravitational-wave detectors. Optics letters\| PubMed ID: 22139282	2011
Generation of high-order optical vortices using directly machined spiral phase mirrors. Applied optics\| PubMed ID: 22410888	2012
Programmable multimode quantum networks. Nature communications\| PubMed ID: 22929783	2012

Ping Koy Lam

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