Quantum memories are regarded as one of the fundamental building blocks of linear-optical quantum computation and long-distance quantum communication. A long standing goal to realize scalable quantum information processing is to build a long-lived and efficient quantum memory. There have been significant efforts distributed towards this goal. However, either efficient but short-lived or long-lived but inefficient quantum memories have been demonstrated so far. Here we report a high-performance quantum memory in which long lifetime and high retrieval efficiency meet for the first time. By placing a ring cavity around an atomic ensemble, employing a pair of clock states, creating a long-wavelength spin wave, and arranging the setup in the gravitational direction, we realize a quantum memory with an intrinsic spin wave to photon conversion efficiency of 73(2)% together with a storage lifetime of 3.2(1) ms. This realization provides an essential tool towards scalable linear-optical quantum information processing.
@article{arxiv.1207.2894,
title = {Efficient and long-lived quantum memory with cold atoms inside a ring cavity},
author = {Xiao-Hui Bao and Andreas Reingruber and Peter Dietrich and Jun Rui and Alexander Dück and Thorsten Strassel and Li Li and Nai-Le Liu and Bo Zhao and Jian-Wei Pan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1207.2894},
year = {2012}
}