Creation of long-term coherent optical memory via controlled nonlinear interactions in Bose-Einstein condensates

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to create long-term coherent optical memory using Bose-Einstein condensates, achieving storage times over one second and significantly improving fidelity for quantum network applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach leveraging controlled nonlinear interactions in Bose-Einstein condensates to enhance optical memory coherence and duration.

Findings

Storage times exceeding one second achieved

Fidelity improved by several orders of magnitude

Potential applications in quantum networks and entanglement generation

Abstract

A Bose-Einstein condensate confined in an optical dipole trap is used to generate long-term coherent memory for light, and storage times of more than one second are observed. Phase coherence of the condensate as well as controlled manipulations of elastic and inelastic atomic scattering processes are utilized to increase the storage fidelity by several orders of magnitude over previous schemes. The results have important applications for creation of long-distance quantum networks and for generation of entangled states of light and matter.