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

Or Katz; Eran Reches; Roy Shaham; Eilon Poem; Alexey V. Gorshkov; Ofer Firstenberg

doi:10.1103/xt9b-yq8q

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

Or Katz^*
, Eran Reches^*
, Roy Shaham
, Eilon Poem
, Alexey V. Gorshkov
, Ofer Firstenberg

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Article number	043345
Journal	Physical Review Research
Volume	7
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/xt9b-yq8q
Publication status	Published - Dec 2025

Funding

E.R., R.S., E.P., and O.F. acknowledge financial support by the Israel Science Foundation, the US-Israel BSF and US NSF, the Pazy Foundation, the Minerva Foundation with funding from the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research, the Estate of Louise Yasgour, and the Laboratory in Memory of Leon and Blacky Broder. A.V.G. was supported in part by DARPA SAVaNT ADVENT, ARL (W911NF-24-2-0107), ARO MURI, AFOSR MURI, ONR MURI, AFOSR, NSF STAQ program, DoE ASCR Quantum Testbed Pathfinder program (Awards No. DE-SC0019040 and No. DE-SC0024220), NSF QLCI (Award No. OMA-2120757), and NQVL:QSTD:Pilot:FTL. A.V.G. also acknowledges support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Accelerated Research in Quantum Computing, Fundamental Algorithmic Research toward Quantum Utility (FAR-Qu). O.K. and A.V.G. also acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA).

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Physics and Astronomy

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10.1103/xt9b-yq8qLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Optimal strategies for optical quantum memories using long-lived noble-gas spins",

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.",

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AB - 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.

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

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