Storage and control of optical photons using Rydberg polaritons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to control and manipulate optical photons stored as Rydberg polaritons in a cold atomic cloud using microwave fields, enabling advanced quantum information processing and interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique for controlling Rydberg polaritons with microwave fields, enhancing quantum control and interaction capabilities in optical photon storage.

Findings

Microwave fields modify long-range interactions between polaritons.

Fast qubit rotations achieved in Rydberg polariton states.

Potential applications in quantum networks and simulations.

Abstract

We use a microwave field to control the quantum state of optical photons stored in a cold atomic cloud. The photons are stored in highly excited collective states (Rydberg polaritons) enabling both fast qubit rotations and control of photon-photon interactions. Through the collective read-out of these pseudo-spin rotations it is shown that the microwave field modifies the long-range interactions between polaritons. This technique provides a powerful interface between the microwave and optical domains, with applications in quantum simulations of spin liquids, quantum metrology and quantum networks.