Paper detail

Storage and retrieval of photons under their mutual interaction in Rydberg medium

Stopping and regenerating a pair of single-photon pulses at adjacent locations in coherently prepared Rydberg atomic ensembles are significantly affected by their effective interaction mediated by Rydberg excitations, and the similar processes can differ notably from the one exhibiting the common Rydberg blockade as with the stationary propagation of multi-photon light beams in the same medium. Based on the complete dynamics, we reveal the detailed features in such processes by finding how the profiles of the involved quantum fields evolve in various situations. The findings help to determine the proper regimes for implementing photonic gates and transistors. In addition, we discuss the non-adiabatic corrections associated with quickly changing control fields, and illustrate a method that restores the photon pulses' original amplitude during their retrieval unless they are heavily damped before storage.