We investigate in detail the optimal conditions for a high fidelity transfer from a single-polariton state to a single-photon state and subsequent homodyne detection of the single photon. We assume that, using various possible techniques, the single polariton has initially been stored as a spin-wave grating in a cloud of cold atoms inside a low-finesse cavity. This state is then transferred to a single-photon optical pulse using an auxiliary beam. We optimize the retrieval efficiency and determine the mode of the local oscillator that maximizes the homodyne efficiency of such a photon. We find that both efficiencies can have values close to one in a large region of experimental parameters.
@article{arxiv.1202.6195,
title = {Controlling the quantum state of a single photon emitted from a single polariton},
author = {Jovica Stanojevic and Valentina Parigi and Erwan Bimbard and Rosa Tualle-Brouri and Alexei Ourjoumtsev and Philippe Grangier},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.6195},
year = {2012}
}