Chinese Physicists Extend Quantum Memory to Milisecond

Physicist Pan Jianwei and his research team at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) successfully extended quantum memory to milisecond.

Prof. Pan and his team at Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences on Microscale and Department of Modern Physics collaborated with scientists in Germany and Austria to do the research. They published a paper on the research finding in Nature Physics on February 1, 2009.

They identified and isolated distinct mechanisms responsible for the decoherence of spin waves in atomic-ensemble-based quantum memories, through an experimental investigation into extending the storage time of quantum memory for single excitations, according to the paper abstract.

They also succeeded in extending the storage time of the quantum memory to 1 ms, by exploiting magnetic-field-insensitive states, or so-called clock states, and generating a long-wave length spin wave to suppress dephasing. The result represents an important step towards long-distance quantum communication and will provide an empirical approach to large-scale quantum information processing.

Paper abstract: http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v5/n2/abs/nphys1153.html