Highly Retrievable Spinwave-Photon Entanglement Source

Abstract: Entanglement between a single photon and a quantum memory forms the building blocks for quantum repeater and quantum network. Previous entanglement sources are typically with low retrieval efficiency, which limits future larger-scale applications. Here, we report a source of highly retrievable spinwave-photon entanglement. Polarization entanglement is created through interaction of a single photon with ensemble of atoms inside a low-finesse ring cavity. The cavity is engineered to be resonant for dual spinwave modes, which thus enables efficient retrieval of the spinwave qubit. An intrinsic retrieval efficiency up to 76(4)% has been observed. Such a highly retrievable atom-photon entanglement source will be very useful in future larger-scale quantum repeater and quantum network applications.