Slow-light pulses in moving media

Slow light in moving media reaches a paradoxical regime when the flow speed of the medium approaches the group velocity of light. Pulses can penetrate a region where a counter-propagating flow exceeds the group velocity. When the counter-flow slows down pulses are reflected

Quantum cloning at the light-atoms interface: copying a coherent light state into two atomic quantum memories

A scheme for the optimal Gaussian cloning of coherent light states at the light-atoms interface is proposed. The distinct feature of this proposal is that the clones are stored in an atomic quantum memory, which is important for applications in quantum communication. The atomic quantum cloning machine requires only a single passage of the light pulse through the atomic ensembles followed by the measurement of a light quadrature and an appropriate feedback, which renders the protocol experimentally feasible. An alternative protocol, where one of the clones is carried by the outgoing light pulse, is discussed in connection with quantum key distribution.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTeX

Single-passage read-out of atomic quantum memory

A scheme for retrieving quantum information stored in collective atomic spin systems onto optical pulses is presented. Two off-resonant light pulses cross the atomic medium in two orthogonal directions and are interferometrically recombined in such a way that one of the outputs carries most of the information stored in the medium. In contrast to previous schemes our approach requires neither multiple passes through the medium nor feedback on the light after passing the sample which makes the scheme very efficient. The price for that is some added noise which is however small enough for the method to beat the classical limits.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX

Conditional generation of arbitrary single-mode quantum states of light by repeated photon subtractions

We propose a scheme for the conditional generation of arbitrary finite superpositions of (squeezed) Fock states in a single mode of a traveling optical field. The suggested setup requires only a source of squeezed states, beam splitters, strong coherent beams, and photodetectors with single-photon sensitivity. The method does not require photodetectors with a high efficiency nor with a single-photon resolution.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, RevTeX