Devices, systems, and methods facilitating ambient-temperature quantum information buffering, storage, and communication

1. A portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device, comprising:

a probe input configured to receive a probe-field photon beam including quantum information, the quantum information being encoded in polarization states of one or more photons of the probe-field photon beam;

a control input configured to receive a control-field photon beam;

a quantum memory module optically coupled to the probe input and the control input and comprising at least one vapor cell configured to store the quantum information as photons of two independent photon beams, each of the two independent photon beams comprising a merged photon beam including a portion of the quantum information and a portion of the control-field photon beam;

a filtering module optically coupled to the quantum memory module and configured to retrieve the quantum information therefrom; and

an output configured to output the quantum information from the filtering module.

2. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device of claim 1 , further comprising:

a first beam displacer configured to split the probe-field photon beam into two orthogonally polarized probe-field photon beams and a second beam displacer configured to split the control-field photon beam into two orthogonally polarized control-field photon beams; and

a Glan-Thomson polarizing beam splitter configured to merge corresponding ones of the two orthogonally polarized probe-field photon beams and the two orthogonally polarized control-field photon beams to form the two independent photon beams.

3. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one vapor cell contains a buffer gas and one of 87 Rb atoms or Cs atoms.

4. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device of claim 1 , wherein the quantum memory module further comprises at least one heater configured to heat the at least one vapor cell and at least one controller configured to control an output of the at least one heater and control a temperature of the at least one vapor cell.

5. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device of claim 1 , wherein the quantum memory module is a dual-rail quantum memory and comprises electromagnetically induced transparency-based storage for each rail of the dual-rail quantum memory.

6. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device of claim 1 , wherein the filtering module is configured to retrieve the quantum information as either photons of the two independent photon beams or as photons of a combined photon beam, the combined photon beam comprising the two independent photon beams.

7. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device of claim 6 , wherein the filtering module is configured to combine the two independent photon beams into a first photon beam, to split the first photon beam into two separate photon beams, and to re-combine the two separate photon beams into a second photon beam comprising the quantum information for output via the output.

8. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device of claim 6 , wherein the filtering module comprises a series of optical elements configured to separate the control-field photon beam and the probe-field photon beam to retrieve the quantum information stored in the probe-field photon beam.

9. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device of claim 1 , further comprising an outer shell, an inner structural frame within the outer shell, and a board disposed within the outer shell and supported by the inner structural frame.

10. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device according to claim 9 , wherein the board supports the quantum memory module.

11. The portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device of claim 1 , wherein the portable, ambient-temperature quantum memory device is configured to operate with a fidelity having a value greater than 90%.

12. A method of ambient-temperature quantum information storage, comprising:

receiving a probe-field photon beam including quantum information, the quantum information being encoded in polarization states of one or more photons of the probe-field photon beam;

splitting the probe-field photon beam into first and second independent probe-field beams;

receiving a control-field photon beam;

splitting the control-field photon beam into first and second independent control beams;

merging the first and second independent control beams with the respective first and second independent probe beams to provide two independent photon beams; and

storing the two independent photon beams in a quantum memory vapor cell assembly including at least one vapor cell.

13. The method of ambient-temperature quantum communication storage of claim 12 , further comprising preparing the control-field photon beam after receiving the control-field photon beam.

14. The method of ambient-temperature quantum communication storage of claim 13 , wherein preparing the control-field photon beam comprises at least one of shaping the control-field photon beam and/or time-optimizing the control-field photon beam to the probe-field photon beam.

15. The method of ambient-temperature quantum communication storage of claim 12 , wherein the probe-field photon beam comprises a pulsed beam wherein each pulse of the pulsed beam includes, on average, one photon.

16. The method of ambient-temperature quantum communication storage of claim 12 , wherein the probe-field photon beam has a wavelength between 780 nm and 850 nm.

17. The method of ambient-temperature quantum communication storage of claim 12 , wherein storing the two independent photon beams comprises storing the quantum information with a fidelity having a value greater than 90%.

18. A method of ambient-temperature retrieval of stored quantum information, the method comprising:

receiving quantum information from a quantum memory, wherein the quantum information is received in a form of two independent photon beams each comprising a portion of the quantum information and a portion of a control-field photon beam;

combining the two independent photon beams into a first photon beam;

splitting the first photon beam into two separate photon beams;

re-combining the two separate photon beams into a second photon beam; and

after re-combining the two separate photon beams, performing filtering to remove photons of the control-field photon beam while preserving the quantum information.

19. The method of ambient-temperature retrieval of stored quantum information of claim 18 , wherein performing filtering comprises using a Fabry-Perot etalon or a Fabry-Perot etalon in combination with a Faraday isolator.

20. The method of ambient-temperature retrieval of stored quantum information of claim 18 , further comprising:

after performing filtering, obtaining a third photon beam comprising the quantum information; and

outputting the third photon beam.

21. The method of ambient-temperature retrieval of stored quantum information of claim 18 , wherein performing filtering comprises retrieving the quantum information with a fidelity having a value greater than 90%.

22. A method of ambient-temperature quantum communication, comprising:

storing quantum information, the storing comprising:

receiving a probe-field photon beam comprising quantum information encoded in polarization states of one or more photons of the probe-field photon beam;

splitting the probe-field photon beam into first and second independent probe-field photon beams, each comprising a portion of the quantum information;

receiving a control-field photon beam;

splitting the control-field photon beam into first and second independent control-field photon beams;

merging the first and second independent control-field photon beams with the respective first and second independent probe-field beams to provide two independent, merged photon beams, each of the two independent, merged photon beams comprising a portion of the quantum information; and

storing the two independent, merged photon beams in a quantum memory vapor cell;

retrieving the quantum information after storing the quantum information, the retrieving comprising:

receiving the quantum information in a form of the two independent, merged photon beams from the quantum memory vapor cell;

combining the two independent, merged photon beams into a first photon beam;

splitting the first photon beam into two separate photon beams;

re-combining the two separate photon beams into a second photon beam; and

after re-combing the two separate photon beams, performing filtering to obtain a third photon beam by removing photons of the control-field photon beam while preserving the quantum information; and

outputting the third photon beam comprising the quantum information.