17 research outputs found
Single-Photon Switch based on Rydberg Blockade
All-optical switching is a technique in which a gate light pulse changes the
transmission of a target light pulse without the detour via electronic signal
processing. We take this to the quantum regime, where the incoming gate light
pulse contains only one photon on average. The gate pulse is stored as a
Rydberg excitation in an ultracold atomic gas using electromagnetically induced
transparency. Rydberg blockade suppresses the transmission of the subsequent
target pulse. Finally, the stored gate photon can be retrieved. A retrieved
photon heralds successful storage. The corresponding postselected subensemble
shows an extinction of 0.05. The single-photon switch offers many interesting
perspectives ranging from quantum communication to quantum information
processing
Single-Photon Transistor Using a F\"orster Resonance
An all-optical transistor is a device in which a gate light pulse switches
the transmission of a target light pulse with a gain above unity. The gain
quantifies the change of the transmitted target photon number per incoming gate
photon. We study the quantum limit of one incoming gate photon and observe a
gain of 20. The gate pulse is stored as a Rydberg excitation in an ultracold
gas. The transmission of the subsequent target pulse is suppressed by Rydberg
blockade which is enhanced by a F\"orster resonance. The detected target
photons reveal in a single shot with a fidelity above 0.86 whether a Rydberg
excitation was created during the gate pulse. The gain offers the possibility
to distribute the transistor output to the inputs of many transistors, thus
making complex computational tasks possible