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Published Online June 21, 2007
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1143835

Reports

Submitted on April 16, 2007
Accepted on June 7, 2007

Single-Atom Single-Photon Quantum Interface

Tatjana Wilk 1, Simon C. Webster 1, Axel Kuhn 2, Gerhard Rempe 1*

1 Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
2 Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Gerhard Rempe , E-mail: gerhard.rempe{at}mpq.mpg.de

A major challenge for a scalable quantum computing architecture is the faithful transfer of information from one node to another. We report on the realization of an atom-photon quantum interface based on an optical cavity, using it to entangle a single atom with a single photon and then to map the quantum state of the atom onto a second single photon. The latter step disentangles the atom from the light and produces an entangled photon pair. Our scheme is intrinsically deterministic and establishes the basic element required to realize a distributed quantum network with individual atoms at rest as quantum memories and single flying photons as quantum messengers.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)