Professor Ian Walmsley CBE FRS FCGI

Abstract:

Room-temperature, easy-to-operate quantum memories are essential building blocks for future long distance quantum information networks operating on an intercontinental scale, because devices like quantum repeaters, based on quantum memories, will have to be deployed in potentially remote, inaccessible locations. Here we demonstrate controllable, broadband and efficient storage and retrieval of weak coherent light pulses at the single-photon level in warm atomic cesium vapor using the robust far off-resonant Raman memory scheme. We show that the unconditional noise floor of this technically simple quantum memory is low enough to operate in the quantum regime, even in a room-temperature environment. © 2011 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

Loss is a critical roadblock to achieving photonic quantum-enhanced technologies. We explore a modular platform for implementing integrated photonics experiments and consider the effects of loss at different stages of these experiments, including state preparation, manipulation and measurement. We frame our discussion mainly in the context of quantum sensing and focus particularly on the use of loss-tolerant Holland-Burnett states for optical phase estimation. In particular, we discuss spontaneous four-wave mixing in standard birefringent fibre as a source of pure, heralded single photons and present methods of optimizing such sources. We also outline a route to programmable circuits that allows the control of photonic interactions even in the presence of fabrication imperfections and describe a ratiometric characterization method for beam splitters, which allows the characterization of complex circuits without the need for full process tomography. Finally, we present a framework for performing state tomography on heralded states using lossy measurement devices. This is motivated by a calculation of the effects of fabrication imperfections on precision measurement using Holland-Burnett states. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.

Abstract:

We present a technique for frequency-resolved wavefront characterization of high harmonics based on lateral shearing interferometry. Tilted replicas of the driving laser pulse are produced by a Mach–Zehnder interferometer, producing separate focii in the target. The interference of the resulting harmonics on a flat-field extreme ultraviolet spectrometer yields the spatial phase derivative. A comprehensive set of spatial profiles, resolved by harmonic order, validate the technique and reveal the interplay of single-atom and macroscopic effects.

Abstract:

The complexity of ultrafast molecular photoionization presents an obstacle to the modeling of pump-probe experiments. Here, a simple optimized model of atomic rubidium is combined with a molecular dynamics model to predict quantitatively the results of a pump-probe experiment in which long-range rubidium dimers are first excited, then ionized after a variable delay. The method is illustrated by the outline of two proposed feasible experiments and the calculation of their outcomes. Both of these proposals use Feshbach Rb872 molecules. We show that long-range molecular pump-probe experiments should observe spin-orbit precession given a suitable pump pulse, and that the associated high-frequency beat signal in the ionization probability decays after a few tens of picoseconds. If the molecule was to be excited to only a single fine-structure state, then a low-frequency oscillation in the internuclear separation would be detectable through the time-dependent ionization cross section, giving a mechanism that would enable observation of coherent vibrational motion in this molecule. © 2011 American Physical Society.