Highly efficient photon-matter interfaces for quantum information applications

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This research program aims to demonstrate high-efficiency storage and retrieval of light pulses while preserving the quantum state of the photons. Such quantum memory for photons can be realized by mapping the quantum states of light to the collective excitation of spins inside an ensemble of identical atoms using a dynamic form of electromagnetically induced transparency. Some essential elements of practical quantum information "toolbox" will be developed, including universal quantum memory optimization techniques, low-loss/high-rejection optical filters, and sources of single photon pulses and continuous light with non-classical statistics ("squeezed light" or "squeezed vacuum") based on both nonlinear atomic media and high-quality crystalline microresonators. These experiments will have significant educational and scientific broader impacts. Most of the experimental results are applicable for wide variety of atomic, solid-state and photonic systems, and an ensemble of warm rubidium atoms will serve as a prototype interaction medium, and they will advance practical realization of quantum information technologies, such as quantum repeaters. The other broader impact of the program is involvement of undergraduate and graduate students at different levels in cutting-edge scientific research, and educating them about basic concepts of atomic physics, quantum optics and quantum information science.