We report on the first realization of an integrated optical memory for light based on a laser written waveguide in a doped crystal. Using femto-second laser micromachining, we fabricate waveguides in Pr3+:Y2SiO5 crystal. We demonstrate that the waveguide inscription does not affect the coherence properties of the material and that the light confinement in the waveguide increases the interaction with the active ions by a factor 6. We also demonstrate that, analogously to the bulk crystals, we can operate the optical pumping protocols necessary to prepare the population in atomic frequency combs, that we use to demonstrate light storage in excited and spin states of the Praseodymium ions. Our results represent the first realization of laser written waveguides in a Pr3+:Y2SiO5 crystal and the first implementation of an integrated on-demand spin wave optical memory. They open new perspectives for integrated quantum memories.
@article{arxiv.1512.09288,
title = {An Integrated Optical Memory based on Laser Written Waveguides},
author = {Giacomo Corrielli and Alessandro Seri and Margherita Mazzera and Roberto Osellame and Hugues de Riedmatten},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.09288},
year = {2016}
}