Atom-light hybrid interferometer for atomic sensing with quantum memory

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wang, Xingchang, Liang, Xinyun, Dong, Liang, Zuo, Ying, Wang, Jianmin, Yang, Dasen, Chen, Linyu, Siviloglou, Georgios A., Ou, Z. Y., Chen, J. F.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Wang, Xingchang
Liang, Xinyun
Dong, Liang
Zuo, Ying
Wang, Jianmin
Yang, Dasen
Chen, Linyu
Siviloglou, Georgios A.
Ou, Z. Y.
Chen, J. F.
author_facet Wang, Xingchang
Liang, Xinyun
Dong, Liang
Zuo, Ying
Wang, Jianmin
Yang, Dasen
Chen, Linyu
Siviloglou, Georgios A.
Ou, Z. Y.
Chen, J. F.
contents Quantum memories feature a reversible conversion of optical fields into long-lived atomic spin waves, and are therefore ideal for operating as sensitive atomic sensors. However, up to now, atom-light interferometers have lacked an efficient approach to exploit their ultimate atomic sensing performance, since an extra optical delay line is required to compensate for the memory time. Here, we report a new protocol that records the photocurrent via heterodyne mixing with a stable local oscillator. The obtained complex quadrature amplitude that carries information imprinted on its phase by an external magnetic field, is successfully recovered from the interference patterns between the light and the atomic spin wave, without the stringent requirement of having them overlap in time. Our results reveal that the sensitivity scales favorably with the lifetime of the quantum memory. Our work may have important applications in building distributed quantum networks through quantum memory-assisted atom-light interferometers.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_18373
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Atom-light hybrid interferometer for atomic sensing with quantum memory
Wang, Xingchang
Liang, Xinyun
Dong, Liang
Zuo, Ying
Wang, Jianmin
Yang, Dasen
Chen, Linyu
Siviloglou, Georgios A.
Ou, Z. Y.
Chen, J. F.
Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
Optics
Quantum memories feature a reversible conversion of optical fields into long-lived atomic spin waves, and are therefore ideal for operating as sensitive atomic sensors. However, up to now, atom-light interferometers have lacked an efficient approach to exploit their ultimate atomic sensing performance, since an extra optical delay line is required to compensate for the memory time. Here, we report a new protocol that records the photocurrent via heterodyne mixing with a stable local oscillator. The obtained complex quadrature amplitude that carries information imprinted on its phase by an external magnetic field, is successfully recovered from the interference patterns between the light and the atomic spin wave, without the stringent requirement of having them overlap in time. Our results reveal that the sensitivity scales favorably with the lifetime of the quantum memory. Our work may have important applications in building distributed quantum networks through quantum memory-assisted atom-light interferometers.
title Atom-light hybrid interferometer for atomic sensing with quantum memory
topic Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.18373