Physicists create new, simpler-than-ever quantum 'hard drive for light'

Physicists at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed a new way to build quantum memories, a method for storing delicate quantum information encoded into pulses of light.

"We've developed a new way to store pulses of light—down to the single-photon level—in clouds of ultracold rubidium atoms, and to later retrieve them, on-demand, by shining a 'control' pulse of light," said Lindsay LeBlanc, assistant professor of physics and Canada Research Chair in Ultracold Gases for Quantum Simulation. LeBlanc conducted this research with postdoctoral fellow Erhan Saglamyurek.