Long-distance entanglement distribution is an important task for quantum communication, but difficult to achieve due to the loss of photons in optical fiber transmission. Quantum repeater is a scheme to solve this problem. In this scheme, the long distance of entanglement distribution is divided into several small parts, the entanglement is established first at both ends of each part, then, the entanglement distance is extended through the entanglement exchange of adjacent interval parts, in order to achieve the long distance entanglement distribution. Of them, the Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller (DLCZ) protocol based on the cold atom ensemble and the linear optics which can generate and store entanglement, is regarded as one of the most potential schemes. In the process of DLCZ, retrieval efficiency is an important index of the quantum repeater, because it will influence each entanglement exchange operation between adjacent quantum repeater nodes. Generally, the retrieval efficiency is improved by optimizing the reading pulse, increasing the optical depth (OD) of the atomic ensemble and the cavity enhancement. The ring cavity constrains the light field to increase the intensity of the interaction between light and atoms, and effectively improve the retrieval efficiency of the quantum memory.
In this work, atomic ensembles are placed in a ring cavity. The cavity length is 3.3 m and the fineness is 13.5. The optical loss of all ring cavity is 21%, mainly including 15% loss of other optical elements and 6% loss of the cell. In order to increase the retrieval efficiency, we need to ensure the mode resonance of read-out photon, write-out photon and locking. The cavity needs two input beams of light: one comes from the path of read-out photon and the other from the path of write-out photon in the reverse direction. The two beams are locked at the same frequency as the write-out photon and the read-out photon respectively. The cavity length is adjusted by moving the cavity mirrors’ positions through translating the frame, to make two light modes resonate. The acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is inserted into the path of the locking to control the frequency of the locking. By adjusting the AOM to change the frequency of the locking, the locking can be coincident with the write-out and read-out cavity modes. Then, the three-mode resonance can be achieved
When the cavity mode resonates with the atomic line, it will lead the atomic formants to split. thereby affecting the enhancement effect of retrieval efficiency. In the experiment, the detuning of the read light will affect the frequency of the read-out photon, and further affect the detuning of the cavity mode with the resonance line of the atom. Thus, by increasing the detuning between the reading light and the atomic transition line, the frequency splitting between the two modes can be reduced, then enhance the retrieval efficiency. We study the relation between the enhancement factor of the retrieval efficiency and the detuning amount of the reading light relative to the atomic resonance line. The results show that when the detuning amount of reading light is 80 MHz, the intrinsic readout efficiency is 45%, and the readout efficiency is enhanced by 1.68 times.
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