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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 98 » Issue 18
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 183601 (2007) [4 pages]

Interfacing Collective Atomic Excitations and Single Photons

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Jonathan Simon and Haruka Tanji
Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA, and Department of Physics, MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

James K. Thompson and Vladan Vuletić
Department of Physics, MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Received 30 October 2006; published 3 May 2007

We study the performance and limitations of a coherent interface between collective atomic states and single photons. A quantized spin-wave excitation of an atomic sample inside an optical resonator is prepared probabilistically, stored, and adiabatically converted on demand into a sub-Poissonian photonic excitation of the resonator mode. The measured peak single-quantum conversion efficiency of χ=0.84(11) and its dependence on various parameters are well described by a simple model of the mode geometry and multilevel atomic structure, pointing the way towards implementing high-performance stationary single-photon sources.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.183601
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.183601
PACS:
42.50.Dv, 03.67.Hk, 32.80.Pj, 42.50.Fx
 
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