Entanglement-preserving frequency conversion in cold atoms

Abstract

We propose a method that enables efficient frequency conversion of quantum information based on recently demonstrated strong parametric coupling between two single-photon pulses propagating in a slow-light atomic medium at different group velocities. We show that an incoming single-photon state is efficiently converted into another optical mode in a lossless and shape-conserving manner. The persistence of initial quantum coherence and entanglement within frequency conversion is also demonstrated. We first illustrate this result for the case of small frequency difference of converted photons, and then discuss the modified scheme for conversion of photon wavelengths in different spectral ranges. Finally we analyze the generation of a narrow-band single-photon frequency-entangled state.