- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Optimal strategies for optical quantum memories using long-lived noble-gas spins

Or Katz1,*,†, Eran Reches2,3,4,*,‡, Roy Shaham2,5,6, Eilon Poem2, Alexey V. Gorshkov7, and Ofer Firstenberg2

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: or.katz@cornell.edu
  • ‡Contact author: eran.reches@mpq.mpg.de
PDF

Phys. Rev. Research 7, 043345 – Published 29 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xt9b-yq8q

Abstract

Nuclear spins of noble gases exhibit exceptionally long coherence times and can potentially serve as a long-lived storage medium for quantum information. We analyze and compare the performance of two mechanisms for mapping the quantum state of light onto the collective spin state of noble gases. The first mechanism utilizes collisional exchange with the electronic spin state of metastable noble-gas atoms, while the second relies on spin-exchange collisions with ground-state alkali-metal atoms. We describe the operation of an optical quantum memory relying on these two mechanisms using a compact model and study strategies that optimize the memory storage efficiency. Through numerical simulations, we identify optimal sequences for storing optical signals with different signal bandwidths and electronic spin relaxation rates. This work highlights the qualitative difference between the two approaches for using noble gases as long-lived quantum memories at noncryogenic conditions and outlines the regimes in which they are expected to be efficient.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (54)

  1. A. I. Lvovsky, B. C. Sanders, and W. Tittel, Optical quantum memory, Nat. Photon. 3, 706 (2009).
  2. J. L. O’Brien, Optical quantum computing, Science 318, 1567 (2007).
  3. K. Heshami, D. G. England, P. C. Humphreys, P. J. Bustard, V. M. Acosta, J. Nunn, and B. J. Sussman, Quantum memories: Emerging applications and recent advances, J. Mod. Opt. 63, 2005 (2016).
  4. N. Sangouard, C. Simon, H. De Riedmatten, and N. Gisin, Quantum repeaters based on atomic ensembles and linear optics, Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 33 (2011).
  5. K. Hammerer, A. S. Sørensen, and E. S. Polzik, Quantum interface between light and atomic ensembles, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 1041 (2010).
  6. C. Gemmel, W. Heil, S. Karpuk, K. Lenz, C. Ludwig, Y. Sobolev, K. Tullney, M. Burghoff, W. Kilian, S. Knappe-Grüneberg, et al., Ultra-sensitive magnetometry based on free precession of nuclear spins, Eur. Phys. J. D 57, 303 (2010).
  7. T. R. Gentile, P. Nacher, B. Saam, and T. Walker, Optically polarized He3, Rev. Mod. Phys. 89, 045004 (2017).
  8. O. Katz, R. Shaham, E. S. Polzik, and O. Firstenberg, Long-lived entanglement generation of nuclear spins using coherent light, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 043602 (2020).
  9. G. Reinaudi, A. Sinatra, A. Dantan, and M. Pinard, Squeezing and entangling nuclear spins in helium 3, J. Mod. Opt. 54, 675 (2007).
  10. A. Serafin, M. Fadel, P. Treutlein, and A. Sinatra, Nuclear spin squeezing in helium-3 by continuous quantum nondemolition measurement, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 013601 (2021).
  11. A. Dantan, G. Reinaudi, A. Sinatra, F. Laloë, E. Giacobino, and M. Pinard, Long-lived quantum memory with nuclear atomic spins, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 123002 (2005).
  12. T. G. Walker and W. Happer, Spin-exchange optical pumping of noble-gas nuclei, Rev. Mod. Phys. 69, 629 (1997).
  13. O. Katz, R. Shaham, and O. Firstenberg, Quantum interface for noble-gas spins based on spin-exchange collisions, PRX Quantum 3, 010305 (2022).
  14. O. Katz, R. Shaham, E. Reches, A. V. Gorshkov, and O. Firstenberg, Optical quantum memory for noble-gas spins based on spin-exchange collisions, Phys. Rev. A 105, 042606 (2022).
  15. A. V. Gorshkov, A. André, M. Fleischhauer, A. S. Sørensen, and M. D. Lukin, Universal approach to optimal photon storage in atomic media, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 123601 (2007).
  16. A. V. Gorshkov, A. André, M. D. Lukin, and A. S. Sørensen, Photon storage in λ-type optically dense atomic media. I. Cavity model, Phys. Rev. A 76, 033804 (2007).
  17. J. S. Kollath-Bönig, L. Dellantonio, L. Giannelli, T. Schmit, G. Morigi, and A. S. Sørensen, Fast storage of photons in cavity-assisted quantum memories, Phys. Rev. Appl. 22, 044038 (2024).
  18. G. S. Vasilev, D. Ljunggren, and A. Kuhn, Single photons made-to-measure, New J. Phys. 12, 063024 (2010).
  19. T. Utsugi, A. Goban, Y. Tokunaga, H. Goto, and T. Aoki, Gaussian-wave-packet model for single-photon generation based on cavity quantum electrodynamics under adiabatic and nonadiabatic conditions, Phys. Rev. A 106, 023712 (2022).
  20. D. F. Phillips, A. Fleischhauer, A. Mair, R. L. Walsworth, and M. D. Lukin, Storage of light in atomic vapor, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 783 (2001).
  21. M. Lukin, Colloquium: Trapping and manipulating photon states in atomic ensembles, Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 457 (2003).
  22. M. Hosseini, B. M. Sparkes, G. Campbell, P. K. Lam, and B. C. Buchler, High efficiency coherent optical memory with warm rubidium vapour, Nat. Commun. 2, 174 (2011).
  23. B. Julsgaard, J. Sherson, J. I. Cirac, J. Fiurášek, and E. S. Polzik, Experimental demonstration of quantum memory for light, Nature (London) 432, 482 (2004).
  24. K. Jensen, W. Wasilewski, H. Krauter, T. Fernholz, B. Nielsen, M. Owari, M. B. Plenio, A. Serafini, M. Wolf, and E. Polzik, Quantum memory for entangled continuous-variable states, Nat. Phys. 7, 13 (2011).
  25. D. Saunders, J. Munns, T. Champion, C. Qiu, K. Kaczmarek, E. Poem, P. Ledingham, I. Walmsley, and J. Nunn, Cavity-enhanced room-temperature broadband Raman memory, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 090501 (2016).
  26. O. Katz and O. Firstenberg, Light storage for one second in room-temperature alkali vapor, Nat. Commun. 9, 2074 (2018).
  27. O. Lahad and O. Firstenberg, Induced cavities for photonic quantum gates, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 113601 (2017).
  28. A. V. Gorshkov, A. André, M. D. Lukin, and A. S. Sørensen, Photon storage in λ-type optically dense atomic media. II. Free-space model, Phys. Rev. A 76, 033805 (2007).
  29. M. O. Scully and M. S. Zubairy, Quantum Optics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999).
  30. C. Gardiner and P. Zoller, Quantum Noise: A Handbook of Markovian and Non-Markovian Quantum Stochastic Methods with Applications to Quantum Optics (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2004).
  31. R. Shaham, O. Katz, and O. Firstenberg, Quantum dynamics of collective spin states in a thermal gas, Phys. Rev. A 102, 012822 (2020).
  32. V. Lefevre-Seguin and M. Leduc, Metastability-exchange and depolarising collisions in xenon and krypton, J. Phys. B 10, 2157 (1977).
  33. T. Xia, S. Morgan, Y.-Y. Jau, and W. Happer, Polarization and hyperfine transitions of metastable Xe129 in discharge cells, Phys. Rev. A 81, 033419 (2010).
  34. M. Batz, P.-J. Nacher, and G. Tastevin, Fundamentals of metastability exchange optical pumping in helium, in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (IOP Publishing, Munich-Ismaning, Germany, 2011), Vol. 294, p. 012002.
  35. J. Dupont-Roc, M. Leduc, and F. Laloë, New value for the metastability exchange cross section in helium, Phys. Rev. Lett. 27, 467 (1971).
  36. L. D. Schearer, Collision-induced mixing in the 23p levels of helium, Phys. Rev. 160, 76 (1967).
  37. D. Vrinceanu, S. Kotochigova, and H. R. Sadeghpour, Pressure broadening and shift of He(23P0,1,2)−He(2s3) lines, Phys. Rev. A 69, 022714 (2004).
  38. R. Shaham, O. Katz, and O. Firstenberg, Strong coupling of alkali-metal spins to noble-gas spins with an hour-long coherence time, Nat. Phys. 18, 506 (2022).
  39. A. V. Gorshkov, T. Calarco, M. D. Lukin, and A. S. Sørensen, Photon storage in λ-type optically dense atomic media. IV. Optimal control using gradient ascent, Phys. Rev. A 77, 043806 (2008).
  40. W. Heil, C. Gemmel, S. Karpuk, Y. Sobolev, K. Tullney, F. Allmendinger, U. Schmidt, M. Burghoff, W. Kilian, S. Knappe-Grüneberg, et al., Spin clocks: Probing fundamental symmetries in nature, Ann. Phys. 525, 539 (2013).
  41. D. Budker and M. Romalis, Optical magnetometry, Nat. Phys. 3, 227 (2007).
  42. N. B. Phillips, A. V. Gorshkov, and I. Novikova, Optimal light storage in atomic vapor, Phys. Rev. A 78, 023801 (2008).
  43. N. B. Phillips, A. V. Gorshkov, and I. Novikova, Light storage in an optically thick atomic ensemble under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency and four-wave mixing, Phys. Rev. A 83, 063823 (2011).
  44. N. B. Phillips, A. V. Gorshkov, and I. Novikova, Slow light propagation and amplification via electromagnetically induced transparency and four-wave mixing in an optically dense atomic vapor, J. Mod. Opt. 56, 1916 (2009).
  45. K. B. Dideriksen, R. Schmieg, M. Zugenmaier, and E. S. Polzik, Room-temperature single-photon source with near-millisecond built-in memory, Nat. Commun. 12, 3699 (2021).
  46. M. Dąbrowski, R. Chrapkiewicz, and W. Wasilewski, Hamiltonian design in readout from room-temperature Raman atomic memory, Opt. Express 22, 26076 (2014).
  47. K. Zhang, J. Guo, L. Chen, C. Yuan, Z. Ou, and W. Zhang, Suppression of the four-wave-mixing background noise in a quantum memory retrieval process by channel blocking, Phys. Rev. A 90, 033823 (2014).
  48. N. Prajapati, G. Romanov, and I. Novikova, Suppression of four-wave mixing in hot rubidium vapor using ladder scheme Raman absorption, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 34, 1994 (2017).
  49. D. England, P. Bustard, J. Nunn, R. Lausten, and B. Sussman, From photons to phonons and back: A THz optical memory in diamond, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 243601 (2013).
  50. S. Appelt, A. B.-A. Baranga, C. Erickson, M. Romalis, A. Young, and W. Happer, Theory of spin-exchange optical pumping of He3 and Xe129, Phys. Rev. A 58, 1412 (1998).
  51. J. Sherson, A. S. Sørensen, J. Fiurášek, K. Mølmer, and E. S. Polzik, Light qubit storage and retrieval using macroscopic atomic ensembles, Phys. Rev. A 74, 011802 (2006).
  52. C. A. Muschik, K. Hammerer, E. S. Polzik, and J. I. Cirac, Efficient quantum memory and entanglement between light and an atomic ensemble using magnetic fields, Phys. Rev. A 73, 062329 (2006).
  53. D. E. Rumelhart, G. E. Hinton, and R. J. Williams, Learning representations by back-propagating errors, Nature (London) 323, 533 (1986).
  54. N. Qian, On the momentum term in gradient descent learning algorithms, Neural Netw. 12, 145 (1999).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 7, 043345– Published 29 December, 2025
  • Received 7 November 2024
  • Accepted 17 November 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation