Temporal compression of quantum information-carrying photons using a photon-echo quantum memory approach

摘要

We study quantum compression and decompression of light pulses that carryquantum information using a photon-echo quantum memory technique withcontrollable inhomogeneous broadening of an isolated atomic absorption line. Weinvestigate media with differently broadened absorption profiles, transverseand longitudinal, finding that the recall efficiency can be as large as unityand that the quantum information encoded into the photonic qubits can remainunperturbed. Our results provide new insight into reversible light-atominteraction, and are interesting in view of future quantum communicationnetworks, where pulse compression and decompression may play an important roleto increase the qubit rate, or to map quantum information from photoniccarriers with large optical bandwidth into atomic memories with smallerbandwidth.