Canadian Researchers Develop Way to Build Quantum Memories

(Phys.org) Physicists at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed a new way to build quantum memories, a method for storing delicate quantum information encoded into pulses of light. Quantum memories are an important component of quantum networks, serving much the same role as hard drives in today’s computers.
“We’ve developed a new way to store pulses of light—down to the single-photon level—in clouds of ultracold rubidium atoms, and to later retrieve them, on-demand, by shining a ‘control’ pulse of light,” said Lindsay LeBlanc, assistant professor of physics and Canada Research Chair in Ultracold Gases for Quantum Simulation. LeBlanc conducted this research with postdoctoral fellow Erhan Saglamyurek.