Quantum storage investigation in rare-earth ion doped crystals: The example of thulium - Thierry Chanelière

Building a solid-state quantum memory for light is a very exciting and challenging task. More fundamentally it's also stimulating the creativity and giving us the opportunity to re-approach open problems within a different context. Thulium doped crystals have been widely studied but the disconcerting simplicity of the level structure seems to condemn it as a good candidate for quantum storage applications. I will show on contrary that this crystals can actually exhibit the features required by the storage protocols. The potentialities of Tm:YAG and Tm:Y2O3 will be discussed in this context. The particularly convenient wavelength is then a huge advantage over Pr and Eu based materials in which most of the experiment are currently performed. The first part of my talk will be dedicated to a long introduction of the domain of rare-earth ion doped crystals and their potentialities for quantum storage.