High-performance quantum memories are an essential component for regulating temporal events in quantum networks. As a component in quantum-repeaters, they have the potential to support the distribution of entanglement beyond the physical limitations of fiber loss. This will enable key applications such as quantum key distribution, network-enhanced quantum sensing, and distributed quantum computing. Here, we present a quantum memory engineered to meet real-world deployment and scaling challenges. The memory technology utilizes a warm rubidium vapor as the storage medium, and operates at room temperature, without the need for vacuum- and/or cryogenic- support. We demonstrate performance specifications of high-fidelity retrieval (95\%) and low operation error (10−2) at a storage time of 160 μs for single-photon level quantum memory operations. We further show a substantially improved storage time (with classical-level light) of up to 1 ms by suppressing atomic diffusions. The device is housed in an enclosure with a standard 2U rackmount form factor, and can robustly operate on a day scale in a noisy environment. This result marks an important step toward implementing quantum networks in the field.
@article{arxiv.2205.13091,
title = {Field-deployable Quantum Memory for Quantum Networking},
author = {Yang Wang and Alexander N. Craddock and Rourke Sekelsky and Mael Flament and Mehdi Namazi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.13091},
year = {2022}
}