Large conditional single-photon cross-phase modulation

Deterministic optical quantum logic requires a nonlinear quantum process that alters the phase of a quantum optical state by π through interaction with only one photon. Here, we demonstrate a large conditional cross-phase modulation between a signal field, stored inside an atomic quantum memory, and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Beck, Kristin Marie, Hosseini, Mahdi, Duan, Yiheng, Vuletic, Vladan
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109134
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2486-4164
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4404-6620
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8051-1844
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9786-0538
Description
Summary:Deterministic optical quantum logic requires a nonlinear quantum process that alters the phase of a quantum optical state by π through interaction with only one photon. Here, we demonstrate a large conditional cross-phase modulation between a signal field, stored inside an atomic quantum memory, and a control photon that traverses a high-finesse optical cavity containing the atomic memory. This approach avoids fundamental limitations associated with multimode effects for traveling optical photons. We measure a conditional cross-phase shift of π/6 (and up to π/3 by postselection on photons that remain in the system longer than average) between the retrieved signal and control photons, and confirm deterministic entanglement between the signal and control modes by extracting a positive concurrence. By upgrading to a state-of-the-art cavity, our system can reach a coherent phase shift of π at low loss, enabling deterministic and universal photonic quantum logic.